TRIGUN: MOON CHILD ¤ The Oklahoma Years
by ArkNorth
Summary: POST ANIME ¤ T:MC ¤ Chapter Six ¤ Jerry ¤ To save the future, Millie and Nicholas must relive their most tragic day in Oklahoma ¤ the day they lost their son.
1. The Visitors

TRIGUN: MOON CHILD  
**THE OKLAHOMA** **YEARS  
**Based on "Distant Lives" (FFN #3519328/9) from Trigun: Moon Child

**Chapter One**

**The** **Visitors  
**By R. A. Stott

Forgiveness Chapel sat in the middle of a vast rolling plain of wheat and pastures, and saw the comings and goings of the days in peace and tranquility – an oddity to those who visited the church, since it's location within The Source, the place where Angel Ones and their descendants, the children of Angel Five (AKA Plants) acquired their power from, seemed remote and out of place. But it had become quite a popular meetinghouse for them. Every Sunday for the last ten years, the building would take in a standing room throng of the newly devout, many of whom thought this was the closest they would come to their possible roots. To others, the atmosphere was a pleasing release from what Gunsmoke, or what was now called Deneb One had become – a bustling spaceport community – the tollbooth to the outer rim of the galaxy.

But the majority would say that the warm feeling and the overall fondness of being near the Saverem's was the real reason why they continued to come and pray at their weekly services. The community was held together by their fondness of the couple and their growing family. The Reverend once noted it to being inside a fish bowl, but it was a necessary evil to bear for the good of all.

So the community would witness it all, the good and the bad. They were there when the pair had their children, and they were there when they lost the child at birth. They saw the family grow over the years to seven members and two more grave sites outside the doors of the chapel. Seth Albert and Morgan Ashley Saverem had both been stillborn, and had been buried beside their great great great great great grandniece Remembrance.

The community also kept a watchful eye over the matriarch of the family, Millie Saverem. The fact that she was merely a human within The Source astounded many. Some would bring their own children to her home just so that they could learn the simple ways of this kind and gentle woman. Beloved by the community, the two times she lost her babies had sent a ripple effect through the Plantoids to make sure it never happened again. Concern over her safety was a regular point of discussion at the annual meetings of the Plants Council, since this had been the woman responsible for the creation of the vast landscape that greeted visitors to the Saverem Homestead within The Source. Rem Saverem's world prior to Millie's was merely a large tree and a slab of stone – Millie's husband, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, simply created his Forgiveness Chapel as a replacement for the tree. But Millie added to the surroundings, and it was this that the Plants cherished – Oklahoma from the late 1890's Earth stretched out around the church and four other buildings that had sprouted from the first. The vast open fields and woodlands were often used as vacation sites by those who could come to rest their minds and relieve their pains of the now hectic daily life of Deneb One or the Plants other homes on Earth and Venus.

Millie's daily morning activities had been completed. The children had been sent off to the schoolhouse out back of the chapel for their lessons of the day by the visiting teacher, Nicholas was in the rectory planning the next week's sermons, and she had finished collecting eggs from the chicken coops and tending to the livestock in the barn – after school, she and the kids were going to do the unenviable task of mucking the barn out. Such is life on the farm. She sat on the bench at her piano in the church and sipped on a soothing cup of coffee and contemplated the always changing stained glass windows. N'ya was near the large one on the left side of the chapel admiring the newly created pieces that had sprouted overnight.

"It must have been a cold night on Earth," he bemused. Millie giggled at the silly Kuroneko.

The front door to the chapel pulled open. N'ya spun about, not expecting anyone. The church was usually a quiet place to be on a Monday morning. He saw a strange light entering the opening.

"Uh oh," he said.

Millie looked up from the piano's keyboard. "What?" she asked, having not noticed the door or the light at first.

"Astral light," the cat said as he jumped down from the window and scurried over to Millie's bench. "What do _they_ want?"

"They?" Millie asked. She looked at the light and saw two silhouetted figures step out of it. The luminance then vanished and Millie gasped.

The image was of two teenage girls. Both seemed quite powerful to her. The first had long blond hair, fair skin and bright green eyes, and she wore a robe-like gown that was white and trimmed in blue and gold.

The other girl though was the opposite of the first. Her skin was red, and her short black hair swirled across her head. Her eyes were also red, and burned like the fires below. She was wearing a tight leather… something… there was very little left to the imagination with the dress she wore. On her head were a pair of little horns, and on her back were a set of leathery wings and a tail.

"Mildred Elizabeth Thompson Wolfwood Saverem?" the blond girl asked. Millie winced at the saying of her full name, especially 'Mildred'.

N'ya stood at the end of the piano, his fur bristling and his eye narrow. His tail switched back and forth like a whip. "The name is Millie, if you please," he hissed. "May I ask why we are having a visit from you two?"

"Listen fur-ball, we're not here to talk to you!" the dark girl with the wings snarled back. N'ya flicked a clawed paw in her direction – she did the same back.

"Xuru! Please!" the other girl scolded her partner. "That won't help out with our project!"

The girl named Xuru crossed her arms and pouted. The other girl sighed and turned back towards Millie.

"I'm dreadfully sorry," she said in a light and airy voice. "My card." She handed a business card to Millie who blinked at the inscription.

"Puruu – Goddess in Training" it read in gold relief letters. She turned it about and found that on the back and written in red scrawl was "Xuru – Junior Demon – Fourth Class."

"Oh my," Millie exclaimed. "A Goddess and a Demon? Together?"

The cat sat down with a thud on the edge of the piano. "Not surprising, m'am," he growled. "They get paired off during their training days… a fallout from the Treaty of Advent…"

Millie looked at N'ya with a confused expression. "Treaty? Was there a war or something?"

The two girls looked at one another and then looked at the cat then back at each other again.

"Maybe…" Puruu and Xuru said in tandem.

N'ya sneezed. "Riiiiight," he cracked. "If it wasn't for the Treaty of Advent, the universe would be a blaze with darkness and blight beyond all things evil or light. That was why the demonic world and the holy worlds signed so readily." He looked at the one named Puruu and got a terse look on his face. "I thought you were unable to lie…"

Puruu cleared her throat. "I did not lie," she said with a slight cough. "We are not allowed to discuss such things, which is why I… faltered there…"

"I'm the one who can lie!" Xuru volunteered happily. "I can lie like a rug! I can fib, falsify, fake, philander and cheat with the best of 'em!"

N'ya drooped an ear. "It's telling the truth that probably gags her!" he moaned.

Puruu glared at the floor and had a visible sweat-drop rolling down her forehead. "Actually, the treaty also limits the amount of falsehoods a demon may spout as well." She looked up at her partner who was giving her the evil eye. "It limits the damages caused by such lying."

Millie laughed. "Gee, you two remind me of when I was working with Miss Meryl!" she gleefully said.

Puruu and Xuru looked at her with drawn faces. "Err, yes," they said again in tandem.

"Fffth!" the cat spat. "Why are you here?"

Xuru looked as if she wanted to barbeque the feline, but Puruu intervened. "We are interested in the history of the Saverem family," she said with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Really?" Millie replied with the same sparkle which caught the two girls by surprise.

"My horns! She's just like you Puruu!" Xuru said as she stepped back. Her spiked tail wrapped around her legs and shook like a rattlesnake's.

"Almost like Rem's!" the training Goddess exclaimed.

Xuru gave her partner a sideways look. "Don't get overly excited now," she grunted.

N'ya's ears perked up. "Rem? You know of Rem Saverem?"

"Know her?" Puruu smiled. "She's our subject for our final report in Spirits and Souls!"

"Ea?" the Kuroneko said with a squirreled nose. "Subject? As in term papers? This is a school project?"

"Believe me, it wasn't my first idea," Xuru said with rolled eyes. "Especially the way we have to do these reports!"

N'ya now was sitting with a confused look on his face. "Why for how come?"

Puruu stepped back next to her partner and looked down. "We have to look at our subject as if we were our partner," she said without looking up at either of them.

N'ya nodded. "Ah, I see," he said.

"I don't," Millie said. "What does she mean?"

N'ya shook his head. "She means, the Goddess must report as if she were a demon," he started, and noticed that Puruu winced when he said it. "And the Demon must report as if she were the goddess." Xuru now winced and her tail again rattled.

Millie sat back on the bench and looked at the two girls. "Really… That must be difficult!"

Both girls gritted their teeth and meekly said "yes." N'ya nearly fell off the piano.

"N'ya, that's not very nice," Millie scolded the Kuroneko as he rolled about laughing. "So I take it that you've met my great - great - great - great - great granddaughter?"

Much to her surprise, it was Xuru who this time perkily said "Yes, yes we did!" She then caught herself and cleared her throat. "Ahem… she sometimes works for our teacher as an assistant on the subject of humans and their capabilities to intermix with others."

N'ya was on his back looking at her with that perplexed look again. "Come again?" he queried.

Puruu shifted on her feet. "Remembrance Saverem has become an expert on the relationships between humans and other life forms since ascending. She and her husband have been diligent researching the subject."

Millie scratched her head. "I didn't think that when you went up there, you needed to do such things…"

Xuru snorted. "Anything's better than just sitting around and contemplating the clouds."

Millie cocked her head. "Why? What's wrong with that?" Xuru didn't want to even go there.

N'ya righted himself. "So, you interviewed Rem. So why are you here?" he asked.

Puruu smiled. "Extra credit!" she exclaimed.

"Whoopee!" Xuru expounded with little fanfare.

Puruu ignored the demon's comment. "When Rem told us of her family's history, and then of her one hundred thirty years of near solitude, it was simply too good a story to pass up. We actually had to fight off others who wanted to do her story as well!"

Xuru grinned. "It was a glorious battle!"

N'ya and Millie stared at the demon-girl. "You fought over Rem?"

Puruu smiled again – N'ya nervously watched her as she mimicked Millie just a bit too much at times. "Oh yes, when a subject is wanted by more than one partnered group, a competition is held to determine who shall be rewarded with the item, this time being the privilege to discuss with Rem her family's history!"

"You always make it sound so pedestrian," Xuru complained then got a wicked look on her face. "I took Ursula down with one good swipe of my claws and a whack with my tail! She floundered in that pool of quicksand for hours!"

N'ya and Millie blinked with blank stares. "Really," the cat finally replied out of the side of his mouth.

"How… diligent," Millie said.

"Nicely put," N'ya noted to her.

Puruu coughed. "Yes, well, during our interview with Rem, she told us that you actually lived two lives, and that you're actually living a third one here in The Source…"

Millie blushed slightly. "Well, I wouldn't call it three lives… I'm still with my Nicholas…"

"But two completely different families," Xuru said, "and a life before meeting Nicholas… not very many people can say they did all that!"

Millie sighed and reflected. "My life before I met Nicholas was pretty mundane… Oklahoma was always my favorite…"

Puruu perked up – if that was even possible – further. "Oh, we were hoping you'd say that, since we have little to go on from that time in history!"

N'ya scratched his ear. "Why not just read the Observer's Report on the subject – I'm sure you can get a copy of that."

Xuru planted her fists on her hips and gave the cat a stern look. "If we could we would - but we can't so we didn't!"

"Come again?" N'ya queried.

"We're not allowed to reference that body of work," Puruu stated. "We must have one on one conversations with our subjects."

"Fine then!" Millie exclaimed as she straightened herself on the bench and gestured the girls to sit on the front pews. "Let's get started!"

"You'll do it?" Puruu asked with a bit of shock in her voice.

"Really?" Xuru chimed in as well.

"Well, of course I will!" Millie smiled. "Oklahoma is my favorite subject! I'm always happy to talk about our life there!"

Xuru grinned from ear to ear. "Great!" she exclaimed as she snapped her fingers.

Millie put her hand up to her face as the glare of a pair of spotlights blinded her. When she blinked, she could see that there was a pair of cameras pointed at her and some people behind them swinging them about.

"What is all this?" N'ya howled.

"Xuru! We agreed!" Puruu stated from her seated position.

She grumbled. "Oh, okay…" She snapped her fingers and the Action News camera crew vanished. "So how are we going to take notes?"

A pad of paper landed in her lap along with a pencil.

"Oh, joy," the demon said as she started doodling in the corner of the paper.

"Oh!" Millie said and held her belly. N'ya stood up and moved over to her side.

"That was a good one," he said.

"This one's feisty," Millie admitted. "'Would make a good soccer player!"

Puruu and Xuru had not noticed, but their subject was quite pregnant. They sat and blinked as Millie settled back down on the bench as she soothed her belly.

"Are you sure you want to do this madam?" Puruu asked her being worried for Millie's comfort.

"Oh, heavens child, this is nothing!" Millie sparkled. "But before we continue, you both must promise me one thing…"

They both leaned forwards and listened closely to their subject.

"Please don't ever call me that name again!" Millie said.

Xuru gagged and stifled a laugh. Puruu nodded but looked at Xuru with confusion, agreeing out of simple want to do the interview.

"Fine!" Millie exclaimed as she turned to the piano and ran her fingers across its keys. N'ya watched as she started few bars of a song.

"What name?" Puruu whispered to her partner.

Xuru sat like a statue, smiling like an imp. She took her pointed tail and scratched across Puruu's pad the name "MILDRED." The Junior-Goddess gasped and quickly flipped the page over.

Millie placed her fingers on a set of keys and stopped. "Where would you like to start?" she asked.

Puruu collected herself and flipped through her notes. "Well, seeing that you're with child now, why not at the beginning? We understand that when you were first placed in Oklahoma by Horloge the Time Keeper, you were pregnant then as well…"

Millie sat back and looked at the balcony over the door to the church. She smiled as she remembered a child who would play on the smaller one that was in her chapel in Oklahoma. She had long straight black hair and deep brown eyes like her father's and a cute little nose like her mother's. Freckles dotted her cheeks and she always was with a smile on her face.

"Mmm, Meryl," she said to herself.

"Meryl?" Xuru asked. "Your partner?"

Millie blinked then shook her head. "I named my first child after her. Meryl Eileen Saverem… Her middle name was my grandmomma's." She sighed. "I was carrying her before I went to Oklahoma," she said in a hushed tone.

----------------------------------------

"OOOOH!" she shouted.

Nicholas bolted from bed, startled by his wife's shout of labor. He spun about with a gun drawn, the sleep still being wrestled from his mind.

"What!? What!?" he yelped.

"The baby! Nicholas! The BABY!"

Wolfwood looked around the blacken cabin. It took him a moment to realize where he was again. It had been only a few months since they had been dropped into this world, and the place was starting to get nasty. Early winter was upon them, and the wind was howling outside with a bitter yell. The building was hardly insulated, and the many covers of blankets were barely helping things.

The cold floor stung his feet as he fumbled with a match to light the lantern on the lone table. He cursed the fact that the house he was starting to build was nowhere near finished. He had been told by his friend at Fort Supply that help was available, but a present uprising within the local Indian Nations had drawn much of it away at that time. He looked at Millie. She was gritting her teeth and would look up at him pleading to stop the pain.

"Damn!" he said. "Can you move?" he asked.

"I'm… not sure…" she squealed. "But… I'm pretty sure the baby is ready."

"Ready from the oven, ea?" he cracked as he threw on a shirt and his shoes. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time I delivered a baby… unless you think you can get to the buckboard…"

Millie reached for the headboard of the bed and lifted herself up just as another contraction struck. She snapped the leg clean off the bed. Wolfwood had to quickly gather her up before she fell on the collapsing pieces as they dropped across the straw mattress. Millie looked at the wreckage with her hand across her mouth.

"Oh, honey!" she cried. "What now?"

Wolfwood looked around. "We get you warm and toasty is what." He sat her down on a chair and started to toss a few extra chunks of coal into the stove. He then gathered up her warmest jacket and covered her in it. As she watched in a slight befuddled amusement, he gathered up her shoes. He kneeled down and started to put them on her feet. He felt a tapping on his shoulders and looked up.

Millie had the skillet that she had once smacked him in the head with when they first arrived in her hand. "I knight thee, Sir Nicholas, defender of the realm!" she giddily said through the jacket's collar. He could see she was giggling, even though she was obviously in great pain.

"We are not ready for this," he said to her. "This is too soon!"

"I'm sorry," she said with an apologetic look in her eyes. He reached up and caressed her cheek with his hand.

"Millie-Angel, you are not to blame," he said with a slight smile. "You had little to say about this… babies just don't have good timing!"

"After all, they're babies!" Millie added. Wolfwood looked at her, adjusting his mind to her logic. He laughed.

"Exactly!" he said as he gathered up his jacket and a hat. He then lit the second lantern. "I've got to get the horses up and set. Are you going to be okay?"

She winced and gave a thumbs up. He shook his head and kissed her before bursting out the door into the cold Oklahoma night.

"I hope this thing works," he mumbled to himself. He pulled a small thin box out of the pocket of his black jacket which he was wearing under his heavy jacket. The box had been given to him by his friend and, as it turned out, protector from the future, North. He was to use it only in emergencies – and this was precisely what he had at that moment. He flipped open its lid and pressed a button at the base of the inside panel. The device beeped and began to make a whiney shrill.

The noise made their horses Diamond Mane and Betsy shake their heads. Wolfwood didn't need them spooked right then, so he stepped out of the newly built covered corral they were in.

The shrill stopped.

"North here Nick… is it time?" a voice came over the com unit.

"She just kicked both of us out of bed and then broke the bed!" he said as he re-entered the corral.

"Yea, as we expected," his friend said. "She's a bit early though… any idea how often the labor is hitting?"

He thought for a moment. "It looked like about every five to ten minutes…"

"Ah, she's quite fragrant then…" North replied. "Okay, we sent a wagon out a few hours ago in your direction. Look for a Conestoga on the path towards Two Bluffs…"

"Two Bluffs, gotcha," Wolfwood said as he lead Betsy to her place on the buckboard. He strapped her in and was about to get Diamond Mane, when he saw the horse already standing in his spot waiting his belt.

"You are a smart horse, aren't you?" Wolfwood said as he patted him on the neck. "Thanks."

The horse snorted.

Wolfwood drove the buckboard to the front of the cabin, which now seemed incredibly small to him. A family was about to be brought forth, and he stood on the wagon looking at it feeling completely lost out in the middle of nowhere. He jumped down and entered the dwelling.

He found Millie bent over, her fist clenched and her arm resting on the table for support. She had thrown up and was panting. She slowly looked up at her husband and weakly smiled.

"I'm a mess," she said to him.

"That makes two of us," he said as he gathered up the blankets from the wrecked bed. He used the strength he had on Gunsmoke to lift her into the back of the wagon and covered her over with the blankets. He then latched a canvas cover over the edges to keep the howling wind out.

"Oh, please, don't close the front," she pleaded.

"But… honey, the wind," Wolfwood pointed out.

"Please," she asked. "I want to be able to see you."

He sighed. "Okay," he said, "just enough to see me." He closed the rest of the tarp, covering her up. She felt him get into the wagon's seat. She then found his pocket knife slitting the tarp just behind where he was sitting.

"How's that?" he asked.

"Perfect, Sir Nicholas," she smiled. Another contraction caught her and she rolled to her side. As the buckboard started to roll, she laid back in the straw he had scattered in the back and felt the jarring of the path down the hill from their home.

"Someone needs to check on the chickens," she said.

"What was that?" Wolfwood asked.

"Chickens!" she yelled up at him.

"They're asleep!" he called back. "Just about where I wish I was right now."

She smiled and reached up and tugged at his jacket.

"Yes?" he asked. "Room service!"

"I love you," she said.

He smiled and reached back and held her hand.

"You're something else, Mrs. Saverem," he said. "Help is on its way."

The dim light the lantern gave only showed the path slightly and the trip towards Two Bluffs was still an hour away. He was at the whim of his large black horse.

"Diamond Mane, we're at your mercy boy," he said. "Get us to that wagon!"

The horse glanced back and nodded, much to the surprise of the driver. He quickened the pace and kept to the known path.

Wolfwood glanced at his pocket watch he had purchased from the Sears Roebuck catalog just a few weeks prior. It said that it was only two in the morning. Nasty.

A half hour later, they were passing their first neighbor, the Murrah's. A light dimly lit the windows of their cabin. Why were they still up at this god-forsaken hour? He knew that she was pregnant as well. Wolfwood considered this.

"What's our condition back there?" he called to his wife.

"Still here," she replied. "Problems? Ohh!"

He grimaced as she wailed. Was this what they called sympathy pains? He looked up at the Murrah's home again. He could see that someone was running back into the cabin from the small barn that was there. He sighed.

The Murrah's were younger than they were – practically only just out of their teens. He grunted and turned Diamond Mane and Betsy up the path to the shack on the hill.

"Honey?" Millie called up. "Is something wrong?"

"Something," he replied. "Just a short detour. Checking on the Murrah's…"

Puruu and Xuru blinked. "He stopped?" they asked.

Millie smiled as she rested her head on her hands. "My Nicholas is a man of his faith. He may have been a gunslinger at one time, but he's always been a man of god."

Ed Murrah met the Preacher at the door. His eyes were full of wonder.

"A blessing! You're a blessing!" he was saying.

"What's the problem, Ed?" Wolfwood asked as he removed his hat. He looked over at Melissa Murrah. Like his Millie earlier, she was sitting in a chair beside a table, but she was surrounded in a puddle of liquid.

"I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!" Ed was crying. "My wagon just broke its wheel, and Melissa just did… did that!"

Wolfwood quickly looked over the situation. "Get her wrapped up and get warmer clothes on Ed," he ordered. "We'll meet up with my medical help."

Ed looked pale at the preacher. "Medical…?" he stammered.

"JUST GET GOING! My wife is in labor, and yours just broke her water! Let's get a move on!"

Ten minutes later, they were heading down the path towards Two Bluffs. The women in the back were holding hands while Ed was up front pleading the Preacher to move faster.

"OHHH!" Melissa yelled.

"Oh, you're not going to wait, are you?" Millie said as she slid around under the canvas cover.

"What's going on back there?" Wolfwood yelled. "You okay?"

"You just keep your mind on the road," Millie said. "I'll take care of things back here."

Melissa looked down at her neighbor, who was now below her in a delivery position. "Have… have you ever done this before?" she asked.

Millie smirked and shrugged. "Birthed a calf back at home… how much different is it?"

Wolfwood saw a lantern in the distance being swung back and forth. He smiled.

"Looks like our ride has arrived," he grinned.

"PUSH!"

"What the hell?" he said at that outburst.

"WaaaaAAAAAAAAHHH!" came a cry that raised the hairs on both men's neck. They both looked back and saw the canvas moving about.

Millie peeked up through the slit in the tarp and looked over at their passenger.

"It's a boy, Mr. Murrah! A healthy boy!"

The lad smiled then grinned. "A boy! A boy! Can I see him Miss Millie?"

"Wait until we get there son," Wolfwood said. "No need to expose him to a night like this, right?"

Ed blinked. "Oh, yes, you're right Reverend… what was I thinking?"

Wolfwood looked down on his wife and smiled. "Thanks honey," he said as he reached down and rubbed her head.

"OW!" she replied. "How much longer?"

The Conestoga wagon was now well in sight. A large red cross was on the front near the seats, and written across its illuminated stretched tent covering was 'FEDERATION & OBSERVERS – SCOUTING SERVICES'. Wolfwood shook his head.

"We're here," he said as a woman came over to the buckboard. She was looking at the young man beside him with a bit of worry on her face.

"Dr. Abigail McManus," she told them. She then looked at Wolfwood. "I was only expecting you, Reverend Saverem."

Wolfwood pulled the break on the wagon. "Emergency house call – you get two for the price of one! Tolefson, come on over here, would you?" he called to the soldier he knew standing beside the larger covered wagon. The cry of a baby greeted them as they opened the back gate and saw the two women.

"You're a doctor?" Ed asked McManus. "A woman?" She huffed.

"There's more of us than you'll know, sir," she replied as she caught his innuendo. "Let's get them into the back of the Connie."

Melissa was lead out first, lifted by her husband as she cradled their newborn son and protecting him from the harsh wind and cold. The umbilical was still attached, but had been gathered up in the blanket. Tolefson rushed them into the wagon to the waiting arms of a nurse.

Wolfwood assisted Millie out. She was sweaty and was breathing oddly.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Just as she touched the ground, a burst of fluid splattered her feet.

"Oh, that's a definite sign if I ever saw one," McManus said as she lead Millie to the Conestoga. "Coming Mr. Saverem?"

Wolfwood stared momentarily. A few hours ago, he was completely out of his league. Now, two babies were here, or nearly here, and his wife was dealing with them both.

"That woman amazes me," he said as he slowly walked through the windy night to the back of the wagon. He looked back to see Tolefson releasing the break to the buckboard.

"Follow us, okay?" he told Diamond Mane.

He could have sworn he heard the horse say "Sure thing."

Millie sipped her coffee. "We headed back to Fort Supply to stay at the hospital there. I was in labor for two days after… whoever said breaking your water was the sign of imminent birth didn't talk to my Meryl! She took her own sweet time!"

Puruu and Xuru sat stunned.

"You helped in the birth of one baby then had your own?" Xuru gawked.

"We're trying for sainthood, but it seems you have to be dead first," N'ya cracked. Millie giggled and scratched his ear.

"Whatever became of the boy?" Puruu asked as she jotted down what she had just heard.

Millie looked at the ceiling. "Jeb Murrah… we were friends of theirs for years after that… They helped build our chapel and home… I think that Melissa always wanted to see Jeb and Meryl marry someday… but…"

Meryl sat under the tall blackjack oak that sat behind the barn playing with a rag doll as she usually did on these spring days. Her brother David wobbled nearby on his infant legs, and would plop down unceremoniously from time to time. A serious child, it didn't seem to faze him when gravity overtook him. He would just get up again and try a few more tentative steps before succumbing again.

Meryl was quietly talking as any child would to her dolly. It had been a bad dolly, having fallen in some of the stuff the cattle leave behind, and it needed a good cleaning – a lesson she herself had learned from her mother – when something caught her attention. A pillar was rising over the trees far down in the valley and covering the sky in a black haze.

"Mommy? Mommy!?" she started to yell. She dropped her doll and ran back towards the church.

Nicholas was in the little copula that held the small bell that the chapel had – a stubborn rope was keeping it silent when tolling was required. He looked up as he heard his daughter calling.

"What's wrong pun'kin?" he called down to her.

"Daddy! Daddy, something's wrong at Jeb's!" she cried.

Wolfwood had the advantage of being on the highest point around – his chapel could be seen across the entire valley – and he could see clearly what was happening. The house that he helped the Murrah's build was entirely in flames. He began to rapidly pull on the clapper to the bell.

"Honey?" Millie asked as she looked out of the front door of their new home. It did not take her long to see why he had hammered on the bell so. She gasped and held her hands to her mouth.

"Millie, I need you to keep that bell ringing," her husband yelled as he slid down the ladder and ran for the barn. A few moments later, Diamond Mane and Wolfwood were barreling out. He stopped at his wife.

"Millie, please, the bell!" he reminded her.

She nodded. "Hurry, please!" she said.

Wolfwood nodded and urged the horse to fly, which he obediently did for once. Millie entered the church and started to pull on the rope, praying that it was working again. The bell rang clearly and loudly. She began to cry at the thought of why she was ringing it, and praying for the best.

Again, Wolfwood reached for the com unit. He looked at it with trepidation. It was for his family's emergencies. Could he use it for a friend's?

He opened the lid and pressed the pager button.

"North here," he heard. "We see where you're heading – we have troops in that area – play it safe, Nick."

"Thanks buddy," he said as he closed the unit and pressed Diamond Mane on. In the buckboard, it was half an hour's ride to the Murrah's – but on this lightning fast steed, he was there in less than ten minutes.

The new house that replaced the shack was starting to crumble. He stopped Diamond Mane around the front to see if there was anyone around.

"ED!?" he shouted. "MELISSA? JEB?"

A weak "Nick!" was heard near the front doorway, which was fully ablaze. He ran to the water-barrel next to the porch and pulled the bucket out of it. He doused himself in the water then filled it again. He readied himself to run into the inferno.

He tossed the water at the door, causing it to hiss and steam. He them planted his shoe hard against it, shattering it to charred splinters. He found Ed near it and dragged him out and away from the house. He took another bucket of water and again doused himself with it, filled it again, and re-entered the home.

"MELISSA!? JEB!?" he shouted.

"Rev… Reverend?"

Wolfwood quickly spun about. His eyes stung from the smoke, but he found Melissa near a stairwell, her hands horribly burned. She was expecting another child soon as well. This wasn't good.

He spread the water along the path back to the door then tossed the bucket out. He lifted the nearly unconscious woman up and ran out as the building started to fall in on itself.

"Jeb!" he said to himself as the roof caved in.

"BUCKET BIGADE! DOUBLE TIME!"

He looked at the path below. Twelve Army men were running up the hill, followed by a few neighbors carrying what they could to help. A familiar Corporal came up to him and patted him on the back.

"Tolly," he said through the smoke in his lungs, "Jeb's still in there I think."

Tolefson looked at the burning structure. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Being careful to hide it from the neighbors, he keyed in a few buttons.

"He's in the pantry closet," he said.

"You Observers… damn you're good," Wolfwood remarked. He then saw the look he was getting from the officer.

"Are you kidding?" he cracked. "I'm breaking every rule in the book on this one!" He grinned and smacked Wolfwood again on the shoulder.

"Ike, come with me – the rest of you, buckets!" Tolefson and the man named Ike ran around the back of the house.

Wolfwood sat down beside Ed with Melissa in his lap. He was exhausted. Diamond Mane nuzzled him, and he patted him on the cheek.

"Good boy… great job…" he said nearly out of breath.

"Idiot!"

He looked at the horse. "Am I?" he asked.

The horse snorted and nuzzled him again.

The cracking of the wood was loud, but Wolfwood could still hear the tolling of his church's bell in the distance. He would have to thank his wife as well.

Tolefson reappeared from the back of the fire. He had his jacket off, and he was cradling something. The look on his face told Wolfwood all he needed to know.

Millie stood on the hill looking over the valley as the sun started to fall. Meryl and David clung to her legs. Her arms ached from the constant pulling of the bell, to which she had only stopped ringing when the rope once again broke. She watched as the smoke became a wisp of white.

The sound of a slow set of hoof-beats made her turn towards the path from the church. She could see Diamond Mane, his head low, and her husband on his back coming up the trail. She then heard the sound of a wagon behind him, and saw the Army men and a few others following slowly.

He slipped off Diamond Mane and stumbled over to the small entrance porch to the chapel where he sat down with a thud. He was wet, he smelled of smoke, and he was more than tired.

"Reverend, where can I set up?"

He looked up to see the doctor standing over him. He gestured to the main house.

"I'll let them use my spare bedroom for the time being, you can set up there," he said. "The door's open… upstairs to the left end."

McManus reached down and touched his shoulder. "Thank you," she said. He only nodded.

He watched her head into his home with Ed and Melissa as she prepared to do work on the woman's badly burned hands. He then had another set of feet to contend with. He looked up and saw the man he most wanted to see.

"Hey," North said. "Nicely done, friend."

"Was it?" Wolfwood grimaced. "I don't think so… I don't think so at all…" North sat down beside the preacher and let him drop his head against his chest and wail.

Tolefson stepped up, still carrying the body in his jacket. "Sir," he addressed North, "what should I do…"

North placed his finger to his mouth. "Put him in the barn – Nightwatch will protect him."

The horse looked up at North – the use of his real name was supposed to be forbidden, but under the circumstances, he understood. He nodded and followed the Corporal around back.

He patted Wolfwood on the back. "Hey – you're not out of the woods yet my friend," he reminded him. Wolfwood nodded and sat back up.

"Millie," he said dreading the rest. He wiped his nose and grimaced a smile at the Pastor.

"Besides, her shoulder is a better place to cry on, right?" North told him. He managed a slight laugh.

"Nicholas?" he heard. He looked around to the end of the chapel's wall to see Millie and the children standing there.

"Oh, look who it is!" North exclaimed, getting up and gathering up Meryl and David. "Did I ever tell you that I have a brother and sister named David and Merle?"

"No Pastor North, you didn't!" Meryl squealed as he carried them away so their parents could have a moment alone.

Millie sat beside Nicholas as he took her hand in his. She moved some stray hairs away from his smoky face. "You're a mess," she said.

He only nodded.

"I saw Tolly take Diamond Mane into the barn… He's okay?"

Wolfwood nodded again. She could see he was biting his lip. She placed her arm around him and held him close.

"Shhh… shhh… You can tell me," she whispered. "I'm a big girl, remember…"

"You're an angel," he whispered. "I don't deserve someone like you…"

She let a single tear roll off her face onto his head. "Tell me… please."

He nodded as he leaned his head into her chest below her chin. "There was an accident…" he started. "Melissa was holding an oil lamp when the child she's carrying kicked her… she dropped the lamp… the wick was still lit it seems, because it exploded…"

"Oh my," Millie gasped as she looked up at her home – the matching kit-house model that had just burned. She saw the soldier at the door and she saw Dr. McManus come back out for more supplies. "Is she going to be okay?" she asked.

Wolfwood shook his head. "The doctor is doubtful that the baby will survive, and Melissa burned her hands badly. We'll just have to wait and see… but…" He gagged on the words and heaved hard into her.

"Darling? What is it?" she quietly asked.

"Our… godson… didn't make it…"

Millie gasped for air. She stroked her husband's hair as he let his feelings take control of him. The memory of bringing him into this world splashed across her mind and she no longer could contain the steel reserve she had been holding. She joined her husband in weeping for the lost child.

North stood at the porch to the home having managed to drop the children on Ike to look after for a moment. He glanced down at a sheet of paper in his breast pocket. He sighed and looked at the doctor as she was heading into the house again.

"Abby," he said, stopping her. "This child matters, understand?"

She nodded. "Understood," she said. "Should I take extreme measures?"

North looked at the first bright star of twilight and grunted. "Do whatever it takes to save him and the mother as well."

She looked over at the church. "It's a shame we couldn't save the child," she said.

"History says that this happened." North put his hat on. "Sometimes this job stinks."

Millie wiped a small drop from her eye as she was stroking N'ya's back. She looked over at the pair in the pews. Xuru was to tears and Puruu was sitting wide-eyed in awe of the lady before her.

Millie smiled. "As it was, Jeb Murrah was the first person in the cemetery we established behind the church under that big oak that was back there. His parents eventually were buried there as well, though they moved away from the homestead they had, even after we rebuilt it. Melissa couldn't stand the memories in that place. It's a shame though…"

"What is m'am?" Puruu asked, still wide-eyed.

Millie gave a half-laugh. "Melissa could never truly love the son that she had after Jeb. She blames him for kicking the lamp out of her hands. It's quite a shame… He became a very good Judge…"

She looked at her watch. "Mercy! The children will be here soon, and we have stables to clean out… I'd love to continue, if you'd like later…"

Xuru and Puruu looked at one another then back at Millie. "Can we?" they asked.

"Sure," she gleefully said. "When do you have to have it done by?"

Puruu held her hand up. "Time doesn't matter! We can take as long as we need!"

"Fine!" Millie exclaimed. "Then I'll be expecting you then… unless you'd like to help on cleaning out the barn…"

Xuru suddenly got a very distressed look on her face, as she could see her partner willingly accepting the job. She quickly gathered her up and started to drag her out the door.

"It was a blast meeting you!" the demon grinned and dragged.

"Of course we would!" Puruu managed to get out from behind Xuru's fingers that were over her mouth.

Xuru stood with a pitchfork in her hands and small children running about in the straw.

"Demon's don't fork straw!" she glowered as one of the cherubs had her tail and was rattling the metal decorative band at its end.

Puruu smiled. "Oh come on, its fun! Just think of it as more extra credit! We're learning first hand!"

"I'll show you some extra credit!" the demon-girl groused. She looked over at a large black horse over in one of the stalls.

"Idiot," it said.

Xuru steamed. She then sighed and started to rake out the straw.

"Yay – farm life!"

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Millie spins stories for the children of the Plants **_

Of Christmases of long ago Oklahoma

The blessings

The horrors

The sublime

The tragedies

and most importantly, the homecomings.

Next Episode of T:MC-The Oklahoma _**Years - Chapter Two - Sooner Christmas **_

Today's Weather Forecast for The Source – Snow!

Bring your boots!

North, Tolefson, Dr. Abigail McManus, Puruu, Xuru, Diamond Mane (Nightwatch), The Treaty of Advent, The Observers ©2003 DMS – Used with Permission  
N'ya ©2003 S. Nordwall – Used with Permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
All characters from TRIGUN: MOON CHILD ©2003 The MOON CHILD Project/DMS – Used with Permission

©2003 The MOON CHILD Project II/DMS


	2. Sooner Christmas

TRIGUN: MOON CHILD  
**THE OKLAHOMA** **YEARS  
**Based on "Distant Lives" (FFN #3519328/9) from Trigun: Moon Child

**Chapter Two**

**Sooner Christmas  
**By R. A. Stott

with assisting input from S. E. Nordwall

The church-goers were given a surprise when they breeched the dimensions and came to the Forgiveness Chapel within The Source late in the year. Those from Earth understood what greeted them, but those from Venus and the former Gunsmoke were surprised when they arrived and found that their dress shoes and heels were sinking in three or four inches of snow – something many had never seen before.

"You must forgive my wife," Wolfwood sheepishly grinned as some were taken by the beauty of the snowfall, while others were just taken off their feet. He had at least talked Millie into lessening the deepness of the drifts, as she had originally matched the amount she had remembered from the blizzard of 1895.

At least she had warned everyone to dress warmly for that week's service.

The inside of the chapel was adorned in holiday bunting. Evergreen sprigs and wreaths were hung across the walls, and the stained glass windows were edged in holly, much to N'ya's complaints as he was constantly sticking himself with the spiky leaves. Wolfwood found the trimmings around all the doorways to be both a blessing and trouble. Millie had lined them with Mistletoe, not stopping with the traditional little piece, but edging it around the curved arches all the way from chair rail to chair rail. She made sure those gathered would know what it was for every time the Reverend would walk through one and she was nearby.

"After all," she would giggle, "Mistletoe was the state flower of Oklahoma!"

Puruu and Xuru sat in the balcony of the church watching the proceedings and taking their notes for their school project. Xuru found the festive decorations a bit hard to swallow, being that the demon-folk were not exactly on the best of terms with the birthday the holiday supported. She wished that they had been around for the All-Hollow's Eve festivities, but Millie informed her that there had been none – having lived out near the pan-handle area of the Sooner State meant that there was little need to celebrate that holiday.

"It's discrimination!" she growled. She looked at the large decorated tree next to the altar and snorted.

"This time of year must be hard on a demon like you," Millie had apologized. Xuru scratched her nose and grunted. Even as a demon, you couldn't ever get mad or tired of that woman… what is it with her?

The main services were over, and the parents were now over in the schoolhouse having some holiday cheer with the Reverend. Back in the church, Millie had gathered all the children in a semi-circle and was telling them Christmas stories while they feasted on cookies and milk. The goddess in training and the junior demon listened as she recited her versions of classics like 'The Night before Christmas,' 'A Christmas Carol" and 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.'

"Enjoying the stories?" N'ya asked as he joined the ladies in the balcony.

"Oh yes, very much!" Puruu exclaimed. "I enjoy the spin Millie puts on them!"

"Ea," Xuru grumbled. "Same old same old – though I liked the ghosts in the second story – Death can be so amusing!"

"Err yes, quite," N'ya noted.

Puruu looked down on those below. The children seemed fixated on Millie. Some of her own though were looking about, and some would waive to the two ladies.

Millie herself worried the goddess – she was due soon, her current baby was expected possibly on Christmas day, which was less than a week away. Yet she personally decorated the church, prepped all the sermons and lessons, and for an encore, created the snowfall that everyone was greeted with. Now she sat with the children telling them stories. Amazing…

"Miss Millie," one of the visiting children asked, "was this how Christmas was like back in Oklahoma?"

Millie smiled and looked around. "In later years, yes, but not at first. The Reverend and I went through a few years of hardship… but obviously, we made it through."

"What was your favorite?" another child asked.

Millie had to sit back and ponder that. "Oh my, that would be hard to say – we had over sixty of them in Oklahoma alone… we really didn't have a Christmas celebration the first year, since we weren't used to the calendar we had back on Earth yet – that extra three weeks in the year we had back on Gunsmoke sure messed things up for us… it took a visit from our friend Pastor North to tell us that were having ours in the middle of January."

The children giggled. "That's silly!" one said.

"Wasn't it?" Millie replied with her usual sprite smile. "But up until we came back to Gunsmoke, and even here in The Source, the Reverend and I exchange little gifts on January 15th as a reminder of those days."

Puruu jotted that down. Xuru noticed she was and did so as well. N'ya just rolled his eyes.

Millie sighed at the thought of those Christmases so long ago. "I can remember the Christmas with our first child Meryl, the first year she could really understand what was going on… sort of… the look on her face when she was brought into the living room of our new house to see the tree that was there… I think I spent that whole night before making paper angels to decorate it… and the glass ornaments that Pastor North gave us. It was beautiful… The tree next to the altar is decorated the same way, see?"

"It's pretty!" a young Plant-child said.

"They have trees like that now on Deneb, don't they?" Millie asked her. She nodded.

"Not as pretty though," the girl said.

Millie bowed slightly to the girl. "Why thank you dear!" she said to her. "The 1896 tree was my favorite before we got electricity." She pointed over at the altar and the tree changed to a larger one with ornate lights in curious shapes like apples, candles, trees and Santa. The ornaments seemed to remain the same, though new ones adorned the tree as well. Silver icicles strands hung in a latticework with added strings of glass beads draped around the body of the evergreen. Puruu and Xuru sat shocked.

"How… how did she do that?" Puruu asked. "Only a Goddess…"

"…Or a Demon…" Xuru interjected.

N'ya cleared his throat. "You forget where you are ladies? She can use the power of The Source while she lives here – if anything, she's become more powerful with it as the years have come and gone." He sighed. "But each tree you see there, she physically adorned herself. She would make it up from memory then shunt it off into storage somewhere in the ether…"

Puruu sat back. "How many did she make?" she asked.

N'ya shrugged. "Twelve – one for every day of Christmas she said."

Xuru whistled. "Damn, that's alotta wood!"

N'ya coughed. "The tinsel doesn't taste very good either…" The two girls looked at him with confused expressions. "It's a cat thing," he explained.

Millie returned the first tree to its position. She sighed.

"The Christmas of 1905, I think it was, was probably the most exciting – all for the wrong reasons… but looking back on it, we had probably the most fun…"

---------------------------------------

"Nicholas, are you sure you want to do this?" Millie asked. She was wrapped in a shawl and was holding up a lantern so they could see in the bleak early evening of Christmas Eve.

"It's no problem," he lied as he steadied a ladder on the north side of the house near their bedroom. "After all, what would Christmas be without jolly old St. Nick?"

"St. Nicholas didn't climb all over roofs covered in snow in Oklahoma in the middle of winter!" Millie whispered as loud as she could to him. She then thought about that for a moment. "Then again, I guess he does doesn't he? But he doesn't do it by climbing out his bedroom window in the middle of the night!"

Wolfwood trudged through a drift and placed his gloved hand over Millie's mouth. "Shhh!" he hushed her. "Come on, Chickie!" he whispered using his pet name for her that she always giggled over. "The kids will get a blast out of this!"

She wasn't giggling. She was glaring over the knitted mitten at him. "Nicholas D. Wolfwood, if you break your leg doing this, I'm going to make you walk to Fort Supply!" she sternly said.

"Yes dear!" he said with a slight exasperation in his voice.

"Don't 'yes dear' me!" she now was snarling. "Of all the stunts you've come up with for the children, this one takes the pudding!"

"Cake, honey… Cake," he corrected her – wrong move, as she glowered at him as if she wished the frying pan was near. "Oooh, if looks could kill…" he whimpered.

"Get – the – tree…" she steamed. She then spun on her heal and stormed back into the house, slamming the door behind her.

Wolfwood sighed. If only he hadn't given up his cigarettes for her… he could have used one just then. He trudged towards the barn to bring the tree over to the house. Their tradition was to put it up on Christmas Eve, allowing the children to decorate it before they headed off to bed.

He was now expecting a very silent night.

The bow-saw quickly made a fresh cut for the base of the tree. He then dragged it through the snow to the front of the house where David held the door open.

"Heeeere it comes everyone!" he heard from inside. Millie was rallying the children together. He grunted. The kiddy lynch mob was about to string up another poor defenseless tree. He knocked the fluffy white from the branches and shook free the loose needles before continuing in with the evergreen.

Jerry and Meryl were setting up the cases of trimmings, sorting out the larger balls and ornaments along the dining room table. The twins Dally and Christopher were busy stringing popcorn and paper-angels for drapes on the tree. Three year old Lexy was running about as any rambunctious three year old would, which was keeping Millie on her toes. Infant Claire stood in her crib trying to figure out what all of the ruckus was about.

Well, if it was going to be a silent night, the kids could at least keep it to a low din.

The red and green Sears tree stand was hammered onto the raw base of the tree then loosely screw-centered to the bark of the trunk. Nick lifted the spiky branched fir up and had his son David climb underneath and tighten the finger bolts as he held it straight while Millie and Meryl judged just how proper it was. David scooted out as Wolfwood tentatively let the tree go to see if it would stand on its own… which it didn't on the first try. A quick snag and the human gantry brought the green beast back to its upright position. David once again jumped under the pointy needles, this time with a set of pliers which he used to give the stubborn lag bolts a good tightening. The tree remained standing this time.

A twist and a turn brought the best side of the tree to the front. A foot from the stand then dropped off, and the tree once again began to fall, this time being caught by David. Nick grabbed it as the boy dropped down to reinsert the stray green leg. A quick repair and the tree was once again set free.

Just then, Lexy the Torpedo came running around the corner and smacked squarely into some of its lower branches, sending the tree spinning and down on top of her.

"ALEXIS!" Millie screamed as her husband quickly reached in once again to lift the tree up. The child looked around and blinked no worse for wear, though slightly scratched by the spiky branches. It was when she saw the look on her mother's face that she finally burst into a torrid of tears.

Millie sat down in her favorite rocker and cradled the child. "Alexis Victoria, you are a pistol!" she cooed to her ear. She hummed a soothing tune into her ear until she settled.

The other children started in on the restored tree, first hanging the small ornaments, followed by larger ones and some of the strings. The paper angels started appearing across the branches. Nicholas and Millie would direct the placements of the paraphernalia from afar making sure that there was an even and pleasing distribution of decorations.

Finally, Nicholas opened a secretary in the corner of the room and brought out a recently arrived box that had arrived from a glass-blower company near Trenton, New Jersey. He has special ordered it from the Railway catalog three months prior, and it had just arrived the day before.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

Back in the Forgiveness Chapel, Millie sighed and smiled. "I always loved that headpiece," she said.

"What was it?" the child to her right asked as she saw her look over at the altar.

Millie pointed as the tree became the 1905 model. "Its right there, see it? - A crystal angel. The Reverend always threatened to paint it red and name it Vash – I'm sure he was just joking," she giggled.

N'ya looked at the tree. "Oh, was that what he was talking about," he mumbled. "He had said 'oh look, Vash is back' when he saw the tree the other day."

Millie nodded. "It didn't survive very long – not with a total of twelve kids and all… at one point it was down to only one real wing and a paper one."

"Left wing or right wing?" Xuru gleefully asked. An elbow from her Goddess partner retracted the question promptly as Millie looked at her with a puzzled expression.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

Millie looked at the forlorn and decrepit old headpiece – an old foil star that had come from their first tree. It was missing its original clip the held it to the top branch, and now had a bedraggled pipe-cleaner the last year, held it crookedly off the tree, much to Wolfwood's dismay. It was the driving force behind him searching for a replacement.

"But… the star…" she said as she saw the angel. "There must be a star."

Wolfwood looked at his wife, then at all the eyes staring up at him.

"It's the star of Bethlehem, right daddy?" Meryl asked.

"How will the kings find Jesus without the star daddy?" David added.

Millie placed Lexy on the ground and pointed a finger in the air for her to not move, which she didn't. She then took the angel from her husband and the star.

"Honey, get me a fresh pipe-cleaner please?" she asked him. He fumbled through the secretary and produced a nice straight white one and handed it to her.

She first removed the old bent and frazzled one from the star. She then did her yearly duty of running her fingernails through the creases in the foil to bring the star back to life, and less droopy. She examined a slightly singed corner – the result of one year trying candles on the tree – never again – and deemed it okay for another year's use. She then inserted the pipe-cleaner into the two holes at the base of the star and bent it over to hold it tight. She then examined the angel.

It was quite beautiful she thought, and heavy. She glanced at the tree, hoping that it was strong enough to handle such a load on the short spindly upper branch. She noticed that the body of the angel had been painted on the inside white, as to hide the fact that the branch was running up inside it. It also had a flouted tube for the mounting. She took the end of the pipe-cleaner and twisted it around the tube so that the star hung over the angel between her wings. She then stood up, brought the chair from the secretary over to stand on, and with her husband to steady her, gently placed the new headpiece on the tree to the oohs and ahs of their children.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

Xuru settled beside the offending tree, glaring up at the angel. "It's just a cheesy dime-store star," she uttered with a touch of discus.

"Sentimental value is important to us humans," the Reverend behind the demon said, "Christmas time even more so."

Xuru shrugged as she tapped a paper-angel with one of her claws. "If you say so…" she grunted as she continued to examine the tree up close. She then got a beady-eyed look on her face like the kind parakeets get when they see their refection in a thumbnail and started poking them repeatedly. She stopped when she heard Puruu cough.

"Hi honey!" Millie exclaimed as she saw her husband.

"The stories still being given?" he asked her looking a bit tired from the party. She smiled her infectious smile.

"Mrs. Saverem was telling us about your Christmases in Oklahoma," a young Plant-child said.

"Oh, she was, was she?" he asked then looked back at the tree. He then got a strange look on his face and turned to his wife.

"That's not 1905, is it?"

She giggled.

He didn't.

N'ya sat on the rail of the balcony and grinned a toothy cat grin. "Let the truth be told, Reverend!"

Wolfwood snapped a glare up at the Kuroneko. "Listen you tinsel-eating furball…" He then caught himself and cleared his throat.

Xuru caught his inflection and jumped. She quickly returned to the balcony expecting something juicy to be spilled. She then noticed Puruu attempting to quell a laugh. She pointed at her wings. She glanced up and saw a large red ball ornament hanging from a clawed protrusion at the tip of her right wing.

"I like it there," she said nonchalantly.

"Don't let your mother see it," Puruu kidded her. "She thinks you're enough of a rebel already!"

The junior-demon just shrugged. "It'll give her some target practice," she said with a snort. "Okay, spill it!" she then said over the rail to the audience below.

Millie smiled, making Xuru sit back. "Silly, it wasn't anything like that! These are happy memories!"

Wolfwood winced. "That one's happy?"

Millie giggled again. "Well of course honey! Didn't it turn out for the best in the end?"

He scratched his head. "As I remember it, it turned out to be a bust…"

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

The gathered at the Saverem's chapel were surprised that Christmas morning to see Pastor North at the pulpit. Some had noticed the strange lack of snow on the roof of the Saverem's home on one section. To those who knew Nicholas it was easy for them to put one and one together and figure out that he had done something… foolish some would say – others wouldn't say a thing, just laugh to themselves.

"Good morning," the Pastor said. "I know all of you were expecting our friend Nicholas here today, but I'm sorry to say that he is a little under the weather. But to explain why, if you will pardon me, I will borrow from a verse that was penned by Clement Moore a few years ago… and give it my own spin… so excuse me to those who know it already…" He cleared this throat.

_"Twas the night before Christmas _

_And all through the house _

_Not a creature was stirring _

_Not even a mouse… _

_The stockings were hung by the chimney with care _

_In a hope that St. **Nicholas **would soon be there…" _

The inflection that North gave to Nicholas soon made everyone in the chapel start to giggle, and some just planted their hands on their foreheads and shook uncontrollably.

_"Millie in her kerchief and Nick in his hat _

_had__ told all the children that they had gone off _

_for__ a cold winter's nap…" _

Nicholas opened the large box that had come with the angel ornament from Philadelphia. The red fabric and white fluffy collars stood out in the lamplight. He quickly started to don the merry outfit as his wife sat on the edge of the bed and shook her head.

"You're really going to do this?" she asked. She stopped when he turned towards her just after he inserted the large padded belly into the suit. Now all she could do was fall back into the bed howling.

"I love you too sweetheart," he snidely remarked.

"Oh!" she laughed. "I'm sorry… I just wondered what I looked like when I was carrying Claire! Thank you, honey!"

Wolfwood grumbled and put the itchy beard on his face. Millie blinked and rolled over, planting her head in the pillow so she could laugh harder.

Wolfwood thrust his fists into his hips and looked at her. "Are you quite finished?" he asked as he plopped the red hat on his head.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" she hacked, trying to catch her breath. "You forgot your wig!"

He reached into the box and pulled out the stiff white mop of fake hair and planted it on his head then returned the red cap. He then presented himself to her.

"I know I shouldn't ask, but how do I look?"

Millie raised her head from the pillow and slowly stood up. She stepped over to him and straightened his collar, adjusted his hat, fluffed out his whiskers and broke into laughter.

"That's what I thought," he said as he joined her.

She settled to a snicker and tapped his hard belly. "Okay mister," she said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice, "I've got a question for you – how do you expect to get _that_ through the window?"

He looked at the kit-window that had been provided with the kit house. The glass itself wasn't very large - the casement was huge to make it look big.

He shook his head. "Don't worry – I'll make it… it's getting to the ladder I'm worried about. Wait until I get to the roof then get the kids up, okay?"

She looked at him with those worried eyes again and lost the happy face she had been giving him. "I'll ask you again Nicholas D. Wolfwood… Are you sure you want to do this?"

He took her hand and rubbed them in his warm green mittens. "It's for the children, remember? I'll be fine."

She shook her head and kissed him on the exposed cheek. "You're crazy," she said.

"Yup," he replied and headed for the window. "This is something Vash would try, isn't it?" he asked as he opened the window and saw where the ladder was.

Millie thought about it for a moment. "Yup… exactly what he would do."

Nicholas laughed. "Thought so… see you outside."

He squeezed out the window and snagged the ladder. "I gotta remember to enlarge that window someday…" he told himself. He then swung one leg over and stepped on the ladder. It sank into the snow a bit, causing him to scramble back for the window frame. He gathered himself back up again and placed his foot on the next rung up. This time the ladder stayed put. He swung over and grabbed it in both hands. The belly wasn't helping any.

"How the hell does Santa do this?" he groused. He started to climb. He looked over the edge at all the snow he was going to have to traverse. He then looked down at his boots. He saw Millie looking up at him.

"Well Wolfwood," he said to himself, "you got this far – no turning back now…"

He waived to his wife and took the last few steps up.

"Honestly," she remarked and slid the window shut.

St. Nick stood on the roof and surveyed the surroundings. It was a clear night, not as brisk as it had been lately, and the stars glistened across the rolling hills of Oklahoma. The snow seemed to lighten the surroundings. He could see stray lights of houses in the distance – others still doing whatever Christmas preparations there might be he guessed. He smiled and took in the vista.

His church was sheathed in the white blanket. Over its peak he could see his new neighbor's, a Swedish family who had a daughter who could speak English – barely. She had taken a liking to Jerry. Not bad for his eight-year-old son.

He heard some sounds below. He positioned himself near the chimney and waited.

"I know I heard something," he could hear Millie saying. "Hurry up children! Jerry, get your boots on! Dally, stop throwing the snowballs at Christopher!"

Wolfwood shook his head. He could see the kids all in their pajamas and jackets with boots on looking about the small trees that they had planted that summer in the front yard. He took a breath and stood up.

"Look!" Millie cried while holding Claire up. "On the roof! It's Santa!"

With that Wolfwood grabbed his belly and gave out a hearty "HO HO HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!"

Lexy screamed and ran back for the house. Like dominoes, Dally and Christopher did the same following their sister.

Wolfwood was surprised by their reaction. He could hear their wails coming up the chimney. He looked down at Millie, who was still just as shocked as he was by the children. She then glared up at the man on the roof. He felt a shiver run up his spine.

"That's daddy, isn't it?" Meryl asked. She had whispered it to her mother, but it was loud enough for 'Santa' to hear it. The final bubble burst. He slumped down against the chimney and sat in the snow.

"No honey," Millie said with a growl in her voice. "That's Santa – and he can sit there and freeze for all I care!" With that she gathered the rest of the kids and returned to the warm house.

Disaster - An utter and total disaster. Wolfwood sighed. He looked around. Millie was right. He'd freeze if he sat there all night. But he didn't feel the need to be lambasted right just then, so sit he would.

"Well needle-knoggin', I just outdid you," he mumbled to himself. A cool breeze picked up – damn he was going the freeze now! He grabbed the bricks of the chimney and stood up.

He shimmied across the peak of the roof towards the waiting ladder. Best he got to it before Millie pushed it over on him.

Millie was busy unwrapping the children and settling the frazzled nerves of the extra young ones. She would wipe noses and toss boots to one side all the while talking to herself under her breath.

There was then a loud thump from above. She looked at the front window to see snow coming down in a cascade as she could now hear Santa coming down the wrong side of the house!

Wolfwood was grabbing at what he could, attempting to slow his slide down the steep side of the roof. The built up snow did make for a break, but he knew the edge was coming fast. His last chance to stop was the snow dam that ran a foot from the edge and kept the built up white fluff from sliding off in sheets. He kicked around looking for it as the ground seemed to leap up at him.

Now the sky greeted him. The snow dam indeed kept the snow back. It also had created a ramp and had flipped him up in the air. But he then felt as if he was yanked back. The cast iron dam had snagged his felt red pants just below the belt. He felt himself start to swing, and the porch appeared to him as he dangled.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Dally yelped. "Santa's hanging from the roof!"

Millie gasped as she saw her husband swaying back and forth like the pendulum of their clock. Even inside she could hear the tearing of the cloth.

Then, Santa was no more.

But they sure could hear him cursing.

"And all the king's horses, and all the king's men could not put Santa back together again," Pastor North finished, ending his soliloquy with a jab at Mother Goose. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, including Wolfwood's. He had been carried in by a few of Corporal Tolefson's men and Millie and placed beside the altar. His bandaged right ankle was propped up on a chair with a pillow and the Santa hat was in his lap.

"I will be assisting for the Reverend as his broken ankle mends," Pastor North finished. He took the notes that Wolfwood handed him to the applause of the parishioners. With that, the normal Christmas ceremony started.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

"Pastor North certainly shows up a great deal," Xuru commented.

"Pastor North is the observer whose report you're not allowed to use for your project," N'ya noted to the junior demon. She rubbed one of her small horns and grumbled.

"How about you Reverend Nicholas?" a child asked. "What was your favorite Christmas memory?"

He stood behind Millie and laughed. "Breaking my ankle certainly wasn't one of them," he noted as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "I remember our first Christmas goose…"

Millie flashed a grin and looked up at him. "Frank!"

Puruu looked down puzzled. "Frank?"

Millie giggled. "Frank was our Christmas goose!"

Wolfwood huffed. "Frank was supposed to be our dinner! But Meryl found him in the barn and named him and made a pet of him." He raised his hand in an advisory. "Never – I mean NEVER let your child name your food! It will become a pet!"

The children all laughed, as did some adults that had followed the Reverend back over from the school party.

Xuru leaned on the railing with her head on her crossed arms. "You mentioned that the other time turned out for the best in the end?"

The child within Millie fidgeted a bit. She rubbed her belly.

"It was after that we had our second set of twins, Faith and Hope," she said with a slight blush.

Wolfwood slapped his hands together. "Faith and Hope! The village!" he yelped with a look on his face of remembrance.

Puruu and Xuru blinked in confusion. N'ya looked perplexed.

Millie's expression became bubbly as the memory passed over her as well. "The village!" she exclaimed. "Christmas 1911!"

The tree by the altar changed again. It became wide and had new ornaments along with the traditional ones. The angel on top lost the left wing, and the tin-foil star vanished, probably along with the original appendage to the crystal figurine.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

November 1911.

It sounded like someone was dragging a chain across a set of meshed gears. Even though they were now safely into the new century by over a decade, gasoline powered vehicles were still rare around the Saverem's homestead, save for the Reverend's personal toy, the motorcycle he kept in the stable where Diamond Mane had once stayed. But since it was now the winter months, and that she knew he was out of fuel for that noisy beast, Millie knew that the foul sound wasn't coming from it – besides, Nicholas was down in Fort Supply working on the hospital project for the young state government. She stuck her head out the back door of her kitchen and looked down the drive.

A truck was rolling slowly up the hill towards her, its open passenger section looking exceptionally cold that frost-bitten morning. The driver was all wrapped up in jackets and scarves and even his eyes were hiding behind driving goggles.

"It's the American Express truck!" she could hear Christopher and Dally exclaiming from their bedroom upstairs. This was followed by the rumbling down the steps of a pair of feet that obviously lacked shoes. The two boys stopped when they saw their mother blocking the doorway.

"Yes, it's the American Express truck, but you two aren't going out there in bare feet!" she scolded. She threw on her coat that she wore when checking on the chickens and pointed towards the living room. "They're in there somewhere! FIND them!"

"Yes mother," they chorused and slinked into the other room.

"Honestly… Bare feet at this time of year…" she mumbled and trudged out the door. She waved to the driver, who made an effort to wave back.

"Morning Mrs. Saverem!" he called through the cloth of his scarf.

"Morning Ed," Millie called back. "What brings you out here on a cold day like this?"

The driver gestured behind him at the canvas covered truck bed. "Something large the Reverend ordered from Sears Roebuck, m'am!" he yelled through a biting wind that made Millie shiver. "It's heavy too! Took two men to haul it off the train this morning…"

Millie walked to the back of the truck and peeked in under the tarp. There was a lone crate.

"Did you drive all the way out here just for that?" she asked worried they had made this poor man come out in such weather.

Ed sauntered around the other side of the truck. "Naw, yours was just the last one on the load today. I get this off then I'm heading down to Guthrie next."

"Guthrie? Lands sakes Ed! That's half way down the state!"

He grunted. "Yea, that's gonna be fun! So, where do you want this thing?"

She looked at the cube shaped wooden box. It had strange words on it like "ACHTUNG!" and "DEUTSCH" stenciled to it. She rubbed her head and looked back at the chapel."

"Well, if it's Nicholas' we'd best put it in the church," she said pointing at the rear doorway. "Can you back the truck up there, and I'll get my boys to help.

"Much obliged," the driver said and headed for the front of his vehicle.

"DAVID! JERRY! DALLAS! CHRISTOPHER!" Millie barked around the yard to round up her boys. "GET YOUR JACKETS ON!"

Ed was correct. The crate did weigh a ton, as it took the effort of all of them, Millie, Meryl, the boys and himself to slide the box down a ramp and into the rectory. Chilled and tired, Millie gathered them all up to the warmth of their house for some soup she had warming on the stove.

The truck finally rumbled back down the drive just as the carriage and team Wolfwood was riding turned up. Ed waived as they passed.

The carriage pulled up next to the church. Wolfwood picked up his briefcase he wanted to put in his office and headed in the back way while watching the truck vanish down the road.

He slammed smack into the crate behind the door, stubbing the toe of the foot he had broken a few years prior.

"Daddy's home!" Faith called as she watched him jump up and down.

That evening, the children were all over Nicholas asking just what it was they had put in the church. Even Millie wondered, as the only other thing that had been delivered to their farm that heavy in a box like that had been the new bell for the steeple.

Wolfwood deftly dodged the questions, answering only that it was some new equipment he had ordered.

That evening as she sat in bed, Millie pondered the huge crate in her mind. Her husband had a nasty habit of bringing things to the homestead on his own, and this was obviously one of them. She could only think it had to be something for Christmas, since it was coming up fast, and she knew how much he loved surprising the children.

She was brought out of her dream-world by a thunk in her lap. She found the Sears Catalog there opened to the toy page and her husband grinning beside her. She reached over and put on her glasses she used for reading in bed and looked at the spread the page displayed.

It was a single item page – usually meant for an extra special thing – and usually an expensive thing.

"I got this for Faith and Hope," he grinned. She blinked and read the page again.

_The Village – Create a real Village in your own Home! 100 Bavarian Cedar plates with lithographic stenciling create a new world for your children to play in! Our tongue and groove design makes for easy assembly! Over 600 parts! Only $10!_

Millie looked at the intricate designs and layout of the hand-drawn page, examining the children playing within their own little town, running a 'store' - playing in the 'home' – riding the rocking horse – all packed into that crate in the church - And all for the now four year old twins.

"Honey… Ten Dollars is an awful lot to spend, don't you think?" she asked, worried about the expense ($10 in 1911 WAS a lot then…). "I mean, its beautiful, but…"

"Not to worry Chickie," he said as he rubbed her shoulder. "Rob and I went in on this… He said he'd be here on Christmas Eve to help assemble it too."

"Pastor North?" she asked, surprised that he wouldn't have something better to do on Christmas Eve.

Wolfwood shrugged knowing what she meant by that question. "He's a man without a parish – ever since statehood and the reformation of the fort systems, he's got plenty of time on his hands."

Millie laughed. "What? Doesn't he have us to look after?"

Wolfwood looked at his wife in a bit of shock. She wasn't supposed to know that North was really an Observer, there to make sure their family was kept safe. "What do you mean?" he asked her.

She giggled her coy little laugh. "Well, he's always there when we need him, isn't he? Our own guardian angel." She removed her glasses and hugged Wolfwood. "I'm going to have to thank him for this. It's so beautiful!"

Wolfwood smiled. He still was living down the Christmas of 1905 fiasco, so having his wife agree with him on this one meant the world to him. They shut off the lamp and curled up together in peace that night.

"Knock-knock anyone!" Pastor North said as he peeked in the kitchen door on Christmas Eve. "Anybody home?" He promptly was grabbed and hugged by Millie and Meryl.

"Hey, we don't get any of that?" Tolefson asked as he carried in a fresh turkey and a wreath. He was followed by Ike and another man from the old troop that was disbanded from Fort Supply.

"Well of course you do!" Millie said as she moved to the other men in the row, leaving each one gasping for air. "And Merry Christmas!"

The day was spent setting up the tree and ornaments, with the visiting men carousing with Wolfwood and the boys. An afternoon game of football in the snow was the event of the day. It was the five men Vs the four Saverem boys and eight year old Lexy who subbed for Ashton, who was only a year old at the time. The feisty young red-head was very much a tom-boy, and could hold her own with the older boys, let alone the men on the other team. She would dart between their legs and scored more than once.

"What sort of eel are you raising here, Reverend?" Tolefson gasped out of breath. "She's a slick one!"

Wolfwood had both hands on his knees as he watched his daughter jump up and down after scoring yet again on them. "She's got Dominique's moves, that's for sure." He looked over at North, who was giving him a glaring eye. He shook his head as Wolfwood realized what he had just said.

"That lady is in your past son," the Pastor said quietly as he patted him on the shoulder. "I suggest you never compare any of your children to any of those you left behind, especially Dominique the Cyclops."

Wolfwood stood up and looked his friend in the eyes. "You knew of me and Dominique?"

North sighed and patted him again. "Of how she entwined herself into your world? Of how she maneuvered you so that the Gung-Ho Guns could take over the orphanage? Of how she deceived you into betraying your call on Gunsmoke? Or that she was the daughter of Chapel the Evergreen?"

Wolfwood's eyes were beads. Sweat rolled down his forehead. "She was what?" he asked.

North shook his head as the other men took up positions to take the football downfield. "She was yet another apple that Chapel used on you – always out of reach. Come on… let's get those kids of yours."

Wolfwood grunted as he relaxed. "Damn it, I hate it when you start in on me like that… Blasted Observers…"

North turned towards him, his mind now back on the game. "Run wide and I'll throw the ball to you, got it?"

Wolfwood glowered at him. "You're just going to let that drop, aren't you?"

"Aren't you?" North asked back. He then turned to ready to take the ball. Wolfwood blew some air and started to move out to his left.

"Okay kids," North grinned, "funs over! Let's see if you've ever done this before… SET! HIKE! HIKE! HIKE!"

Millie had just come out onto the porch with the old school bell she used to drag the children in for supper and saw the play start. She held the clapper and smiled as she saw them running about in the snow having fun.

Lexy used her size to her advantage again, scooting between the three grown men and the strong farm-raised boys that were holding them back. Wolfwood had run in a curved line along the edge of a fence that kept the hogs in their pen.

North reared back and took aim. He began to throw the ball in a forward pass just as a red-headed girl slammed into his belly. The ball left his hand in a higher arc than he had intended.

"Whoa!" the boys called, never seeing their football spiral away like that before, the graceful curve it made as it's rotation and it's shape made it soar through the air.

Wolfwood saw that it was going to be high, so he leaped up for it.

Millie brought her hand up to her face, clutching her fingers as she saw where her husband was going.

There was the sound of wood breaking.

There was the sound of a man of religion cursing.

There was the resounding sound of something hitting muddy mired soil.

The ground in the sty never seemed to freeze, even in the harshest winters. Wolfwood looked at his hands, since they were still above the mud. The ball rested in them. He grinned, his teeth the only white thing showing at the time.

Millie exhaled. "Meryl," she quietly told her daughter, "draw your father a bath… Dinner will be just a bit late…"

"Yes momma," she said as she went back into the house.

That evening was spent reliving that play over and over again. Lexy would show her muscle as an affirmation to all that she was indeed the rushing queen. Hope and Faith would run around her gleefully cheering their big little sister, who single-handedly beat the grown men at their own game.

"I must say, this has been the most exciting Christmas Eve we've had in a long time," Millie said as she handed out hot coffees and chocolates after the tree had been decorated.

"Will you be staying for Christmas Day?" Christopher asked Pastor North.

North rubbed his shoulder. "Something tells me that tomorrow morning, I won't be able to move very well, so yes I will be here helping your father with the Christmas sermon. How about you, Tolly?"

"We're not due back until the 27th, so yea, I guess we'll be hanging around too," he said as he gestured to his comrades.

"And where would that be?" Meryl asked, taking Tolefson by surprise.

"Er, ah… drilling for oil," he quickly replied, searching for an appropriate occupation that she would believe. "We're down by Ardmore – near the Red River."

"My, that puts you near Wichita Falls!" Millie exclaimed, much to the wonder of her husband and Pastor North.

"Now how would you know that, Millie?" North asked her.

"Mommy sits in on our schooling," Dally nearly whined. "Miss Rosewater says she's her best student."

Millie gave her customary smile, much to the dismay of the men. The traveling schoolmarm was always getting on the Reverend's case to learn more so he could help out with the children. He had wondered why she wasn't as loud about it recently.

"As my big sister Lilly always said to me," Millie cheerfully announced, "you're never too old to learn!" She then scratched her cheek. "She usually said that just before giving my big little brother a whipping though…"

The evening drew on and the time had come for the children to all go to bed so that Santa could come and bring them their gifts for being so good that year. Tolly suggested a helmet for Lexy, which made her giggle all the way up to the girl's room. They all said their prayers and were bundled into their beds.

It was now time.

"Okay, where is this project that you brought us here for Nick?" North asked.

Wolfwood hushed him. "Millie thinks you and I went into this together!"

North looked at him a bit perplexed. "Well we did," he said. "But all you said was that you had found a great gift for the twins for Christmas and that you needed help assembling it. Where is it?"

Wolfwood trudged the men out to the church where the crate still sat in the place it had been plopped nearly a month prior.

North looked at it - then at the Reverend - then back at it.

"Oh – My – God… it's the Village!" he said while examining the box closer.

"You know this?" Wolfwood asked as he picked up a crowbar and hammer.

North rubbed his forehead and nodded. "This is part of a set, isn't it? There's a zoo and a circus that can be added to it, right?"

Wolfwood looked at the crate and shook his head. "Yea, I was thinking of getting the zoo for Easter."

North looked closely at a label on the side of the box and read it aloud. "Achtung! Warnung! Benutzen Sie Keine Haken!"

Tolefson look at the next side. "Aufmerksamkeit! Benutzen Sie nicht Einmischenstäbe!"

"They're certainly wanting us to know something," Ike said while scratching his head.

"It's German," North said as he pulled out his little box and started to key in what he was reading. "Warning!" he translated. "Do not use hooks!" He keyed in the text on the second label. "Attention! Do not use… interference staffs?"

Wolfwood slapped the crowbar into the edge of the crate and started to tap it home. "Stupid labels… let's see what we have here…"

The box in North's hand beeped. "Oops! 'Pry-bars' it now says…"

"Isn't that a latch I see on the bottom?" Ike noted.

Wolfwood was halfway into tearing a slat off the crate. He peeked under it to see that he was neatly ripping a lithographed piece with the large metal tool.

"Diese Seite oben!" Tolefson said as he found another label, this time with an arrow on it that pointed to the ground.

"Umm… This side above… uh… up!" North translated.

Wolfwood smacked the slat back into its slot with the hammer.

It took all five of them to roll the crate over once. North noted that if they had another like it, that it would have made a perfect pair of dice. Wolfwood didn't see the humor in it as he panted. Not only was this thing heavy, but the latches were chewing up the floor of his church!

"Okay gentlemen," Tolefson said while bracing himself against the case, "once more… one… two… three!"

The cube rolled over again and slammed down hard. A sickening crack was heard, but no one saw what made it at first.

North suddenly dropped a foot as the floorboard fell away under him. He quickly leapt up with his other foot out of the hole.

"Great… just great," Wolfwood grumbled examining the damage to his church.

Ike started to throw the latches. The last pair on the side that they rolled the cube on were slightly bent from the ground they were pivoted on. One fell off in his hand. The other took the hammer to free up.

The lid finally came off, and they were greeted by a plethora of paper bags, all of whom seemed flat from being compressed for over a month under the weight of all those cedar plates. There were pieces of flattened play food, squeezed merchandise toy-stock for the play store in the Village, money that resembled a Deutsch Mark, a few broken dishes that were quickly removed from the assortment, and something that perplexed Wolfwood, since they came in their own small crate, that they had managed to survive the thumping and rolling, let alone the month on the bottom of the stack, and just that they were in the case in the first place… Ceramic Beer steins… six of them.

"They are for the Bierhalle," North noted as he unfolded a large sheet of paper that was under the last squished paper bag.

"A what?" Nick asked.

"A Beer Hall," North chuckled, not needing to use the translator on that one.

Wolfwood sat down in a chair looking at the crate. "I got my little girls a bar for Christmas?" he asked.

North shrugged. "In Germany, this is quite normal and popular. And it's a Beer Hall, not a bar. They're very different."

Wolfwood looked at him. "Do they serve drinks?"

"Only beer," North noted.

"Are they alcohol?"

North had to agree on that one.

"Then it's a bar!" Wolfwood steamed.

"Okay…" North started. "Err…"

The Pastor stopped when he noticed what Tolefson was holding up – a petite little Bar Maid's uniform.

"Oy…" North grunted. "Okay, I guess you're just going to have to edit this mess…"

"Six Hundred pieces…" Wolfwood mumbled.

"Five Hundred Ninety Three," North corrected then remembered the dishes. "Five Hundred Eighty Seven."

They started to remove the panels from the box. The artwork was exquisite. The details were exact and well rendered. The instructions though…

"German," North commented.

"All of it?" Wolfwood asked.

"All of it," North replied as he unfolded the sheets. Unlike the artwork on the Village 'buildings' the instructions were a horridly vague and poorly drawn affair. What little could be deciphered was simply to put slot one into hole two, or three depending on if section B was going to be next to unit four or six, but only on every other Tuesday…

"Otherwise dice into kindling and serve hot to keep warm by," North remarked.

"Really? Does it say that?" Wolfwood asked, then noticing the look he was getting from his friend. "Oh…"

"Okay… Let's gather up what we need and start hauling it over to the house," North said to the others.

A fresh pot of coffee awaited them in the new section of the house that had been completed the spring before. A large rec-room had been added below the new bedrooms above so that the ever growing family would not burst the poor old building's sides. The Village was going to be assembled there.

It was nearly four in the morning when Millie roused herself from her rocker. Meryl was shivering in her sleep on the sofa across from her as the fire in the fireplace had died. She removed her shawl and draped it over her first daughter and looked around. The Christmas gifts had been neatly placed around the tree by the oversized elves that she could hear busily working in the new wing to her right. She was surprised that they were still there when she looked at the Grandfather Clock. She peeked in and saw a disaster in the making.

"Where is this?" someone cracked.

"Fah! The Village…" her husband snorted.

"Who is number one?" one of the guys was asking.

"No John, I'm the new number two… you are number six," North pointed out.

"I am not a number, Mr. Drake," Tolefson complained. "I'm the letter 'H'!"

Ike laughed out loud.

Millie closed the door and sighed.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

"How long did it take to complete that set?" Millie asked the Reverend.

Wolfwood scratched his head. "It had to have been spring when we finally just bolted the mess together. We kind of threw our hands up in the air and just assembled the mess using angle-irons and lag-bolts!" The parents

"Whatever became of the steins?" Xuru giggled.

"Conveniently lost," Wolfwood said, "but they did show up a few years later during the First World War, when there was an anti-German thing going on, and one of my sons unfortunately used them for target practice with some of his friends.

Millie reached back and touched his sleeve. "Those terrible wars, yes… Of all the Christmases I remember in Oklahoma, the two when my boys came back from war were the probably the most special…" She took Nicholas' hand and held it close to her cheek as a tear rolled down her face. "Oh David…" she whispered.

Puruu held her breath, as did Xuru, who hadn't expected her question to bring up any hurtful memories. She was a demon, but not that type… at least she thought so…

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

September 1918 – Washington, DC

"Well, you're looking better today," North told the twenty-one year old private in bed two sixty three. The ward of the Army Hospital was nearly overflowing with men just like this one the Pastor stood before.

"You still haven't told me," David Sylvan Saverem rasped, "what you're doing here Pastor North."

He sat down in a chair provided by a nurse. "Looking after your family's best interests," he quietly told him. "Besides, I could get here easily, but your father and mother needed to make plans first. There are all the other kids to take care of and a farm that needed tending to, but they'll be here, I'll assure you that."

David wearily nodded, a gurgle passing over his throat. "What's wrong with me Rob?" he asked. "They won't tell me – they won't tell anyone here in this ward."

North sighed. "You were hit with mustard gas," he said. "Probably the worst thing this war will create. You inhaled it before you could get your gas mask on."

David tried to look down on his arm – it was blistered and weeping.

"Is that what did this to my arms too?" he asked.

North nodded. He was about to continue when he saw a nurse wave to him from the door.

"Hang tight kiddo, I think the cavalry just arrived," North said.

"Sweet," David gurgled, a weak smile passing his cracked lips.

North headed over to the double doors of the infirmary and saw familiar friends waiting.

"Rob!" Millie cried. "Rob, how is my boy?"

North raised his finger to hush her as he escorted Millie, Meryl and Nicholas away from the entry.

"Millie, please…" North said quietly and sternly. "There's a bunch of boys behind those door that aren't getting the same treatment as David here – we must take care… It's only because of Nick's work with the Army at Fort Supply that you're being allowed in here in the first place, so I must ask that you remain calm, okay?"

Millie was nearly at the breaking point. "First Jerry, now David… oh Rob, I don't think I can take this…"

Xuru sat back as she listened to the story. "Jerry?" she whispered.

Puruu glanced over at her. "If this is 1918, they lost their second son two years before," she quietly told her partner in the balcony.

"Damn," the Junior-Demon said.

Wolfwood glared at the closed doors of the infirmary. "What the hell was Pershing thinking?" he grumbled about the commanding General of the Army Expeditionary Force. "Taking those boys to the front like that unprepared?"

North shook his head. "What's he suppose to do, baby them? They're soldiers, Nick. And he certainly wasn't responsible for the stray shell that got these boys."

Wolfwood looked at him with concern. "Stray?"

North took him aside. "Why don't you think they're letting any of this out to the press? Everyone knows that they're using Mustard Gas in this war. But this was a case of friendly fire…"

Nick's face turned pale. "Friendly… as in… one of OURS?"

Pastor North glanced over at Millie who was being comforted by her daughter as she wept. Meryl nodded and held her mother so that she could not hear.

North sighed. "An outgoing British shell exploded as it was passing over their platoon. The heavy gas dropped on them without warning. It killed most of the French and British troops it fell on. The Americans were lucky that they were on the outer fringes of the line, otherwise they would have been in the same situation."

Wolfwood's face looked cold. The gray that was now showing on his temples seemed to get whiter. He huffed and looked at his friend. He knew North would tell him the truth. He just wished that sometimes this man would lie.

"Can I see my boy?" he asked in a near whisper.

North smiled and nodded. He reached over and took Millie's hand and placed it in Nicholas'.

"I'm sorry, but only two at a time," the nurse at the door said, then stopped when she saw the look on North's face.

"I will GUIDE them there then leave," he sternly told her. She stepped back and nodded as if in attention. Wolfwood saw the expression on the nurse and looked at his friend.

"What was all that about?" he asked him.

"R H I P," North grunted without looking aside. "Rank Has Its Privileges." He guided them to the bed, got a second chair then departed to let the parents be alone with their child.

Four hours later, Nicholas stepped out of the infirmary. He found North chatting with Meryl about her husband from Kansas City who produced film ads. He gestured to her that she could go in. He sat in her place beside North.

"He's resting now, but asked to see his big sister," Wolfwood noted as he rested his head against the wall the chair was against. North nodded.

"He's got a lot of work to go through to survive this," North said. "But he's always been a trooper, right?"

Wolfwood cracked a smile. "Mister Grim Determination is more like it. He never cried, even as a baby… even when he joined the army, he was bound and determined to make it big… My big little boy…"

North rubbed his shoulder. "He'll make it… I can tell you now, he will make it. It won't be easy, and he'll never be as strong as he was before, but he's still a fighter."

Wolfwood looked over at his friend. "As an Observer? You know that he'll make it?"

North laughed. "Hell yes, he'll make it – he'd better." That comment caught Wolfwood by surprise, the bluntness of it all. North cleared his throat and looked at the ceiling. "Oh yes, he'll make it."

Wolfwood laughed slightly. "Can't tell me how, can you."

North shook his head. "Nope. Pain in the butt, ain't it?"

"Must be a fun job, this Observer thing…"

North laughed. "It is sometimes the best thing that a man would ever want to do…" He looked down and planted his elbows against his knees, bent over as if he were going to be ill. "At other times, it's crap."

Wolfwood looked shocked at him. He had never heard North use an expletive, even a light one like hell or crap – now he heard him use them twice in the last minute.

North stood up and stretched. "I'm starving… you?"

Wolfwood just stared for a moment. He then smiled. "What have they got here?" he asked.

North looked up and down the hospital hallway. "This is an Army Hospital… the canteen probably serves Army grits…"

Wolfwood shrugged. "Can't be worse than TKLs…"

North grimaced. "You still remember those ration bars back on Gunsmoke?"

He snorted and joined his friend as they meandered down the hallway towards the mess room. "Every time I feel a loose tooth," he said with a chuckle.

Midnight in the infirmary and the rounds were being made. David laid there, his world a constant throbbing pain. The roof of the stark room was all open beams and was little to look at. His labored breathing was all that kept his hopes for recovery alive.

"A woman doctor?" he heard a nurse nearby ask. "When did the army let one of those in this hospital?"

"That's all I heard," another said as she tended to a patient across from him. "That Chaplin who was in here earlier told the head nurse to expect her tonight."

"Really?" another nurse asked. "That I've got to see… A woman doctor… I heard there were more becoming ones, but I always thought they would be the type to have practices – you know… the lady doctor who house calls the little kiddies with the sniffles?"

The nurses giggled. They stopped when they heard someone clear their throat.

"I'm here to see the kiddies," a deep woman's voice said.

David glanced to his side trying to see the doctor – he was sure he knew that voice.

"Abby?" he whispered. "Abby McManus?"

The tall woman stepped to the head of his bed and looked at his chart hanging there. "I was told I'd find a Saverem here," she cracked. "What's a nice young man doing in a hell-hole like this?"

He smiled what he could. "Better than the trenches of France," he replied.

"Got that straight," the man in the bed beside him added. "Especially seeing the doctors here have improved."

"Down boy," McManus smirked. "You'll hurt yourself, and I won't be able to mend those wounds."

"I'm heartbroken!" the man coughed.

"Quit belly-aching Jake," another guy said next to him. "Can't you see that she's got a thing for the private?"

McManus stood back and looked around. Many of the men who could were looking at her, even if it meant straining their necks to do so.

"Okay boys," she barked as loudly as she dared without making it too loud, "get this through your heads – I'm your night duty doctor for the next month or so – get used to it. I get any trouble out of any of you, and I'll transfer you to the tuberculosis ward. Got that?"

There were a few feeble "Yes m'ams," from those that could.

"Doctor, I think we're loosing this one," a nurse called from bed two fifty nine.

"Come on Jenkins, you can make it!" one of the men across from that bed said as he attempted to rise up. A nurse forced him back down.

McManus quickly examined the man and looked over his charts. He was gurgling, and liquid was running out of his mouth.

"He's drowning in his own fluids," she said as she looked for something to drain him. "Quickly, I need a scalpel and a rubber hose."

The nurse looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

"NOW!" McManus barked.

David could only see her back as she worked on the man two beds over. The nurse had returned with the requested implements and had handed them to her.

"Tracheotomy, ever heard of that nurse?" she asked as she started in on the neck of the man with the scalpel.

The nurse looked at her and brightened up. "Ah, I get it," she said. Do you need a suction kit?"

McManus nodded. "Yes, and a second hose."

The nurse nodded and gestured to another across from her. "Cecilia, get a drain pan over to her, quickly," she told her as she headed for a cabinet at the end of the room.

Another nurse handed McManus some gauze she had for another patient. She used it to wrap the tube she had inserted in the slit she had made in the man's trachea. She then used the scalpel to cut the hose back a bit. The first nurse returned with a thinner hose and a nasty looking pump-like device as Cecilia handed her a pan.

"Come on Jenkins…" the man across from them was moaning. "Come on…"

"Don't worry boys," David said, laying his head back on his pillow. "He's in the best care he could get… best doctor in all of Oklahoma…" He glanced over and saw McManus looking at him under her arm as she worked. She smiled and winked at him.

Christmas Eve at the homestead seemed bleak that year to Millie. She looked out the front door at the snow that had fallen. She wasn't even in the mood to decorate, and had left most of the chores to the remaining children in the house. She watched as Ashton and Nick Jr. made a snowman while the twin girls tossed snowballs at one another, or rode the sled down the hill.

She felt a tug on her skirt. She looked down and saw her youngest, James, looking up at her.

"Mommy, there's someone out back," he said in his three year old best.

"There is?" she asked. She walked to the kitchen and peered out the back door. There was indeed someone out in the cemetery. The gray winter parka-like uniform of an Army soldier stood before the gravestone of her son Jerry.

Her heart leapt into her throat as she saw her David standing there. She was out the door and into the falling snow before he knew what hit him.

North stood at the church with Wolfwood, both having seen the flying tackle the young man had just taken and winced.

"Ooh, that's gonna leave a mark," North said.

"I guess I won't have to tell her then," Wolfwood said with a smile. McManus looked at the wreckage in the cemetery and shook her head.

"I'd better get a respirator ready," she said.

"For which, David or Millie?" North commented as he watched both mother and son laugh until they cried on each other's shoulders.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

"Major James Patrick Saverem reporting as ordered," the man said as he saluted his father.

Nicholas saluted back and smiled. He stood up from his office chair at the Fort Supply Mental Health Hospital and grasped his son. The thirty year old pilot was back from his tour of duty now that the war was over.

"My oh my," Wolfwood said looking at the uniform. "Such a distinguished looking officer you made."

"I just got in a few hours ago down in Oklahoma City," James said as he and his father stepped out of the office into the main hallway of the dimly lit hospital. "That was a hell of a ride up here in that Jeep they sent down there."

Nicholas laughed. "Then it probably won't get much better on the way home," he snickered.

James glanced at his father. "Oh tell me you don't still have Binney?"

His father shrugged. "She gets me back and forth, what can I say? It's not like I could replace her during the war anyway."

James pushed back his cap and looked out a window at the parking lot below. There sitting in the Chaplin's Reserved Parking was the tri-colored '34 Ford Roadster affectionately nicknamed Binney. A white canvas convertible roof over a brilliant yellow body and black fenders, she was a sporty looking car, but she had a notorious oil fetish. A gallon can of Thirty Weight was always waiting to be poured into her clanky motor.

"Probably the same motor that was in the Jeep," he grumbled.

The bouncy ride through town to the small diner confirmed to the Major that his worst fears were right. Binney was still quite Binney. She chugged and huffed and panted and sneezed her way to the parking lot.

"Dad, when was the last time you had her overhauled?" he asked.

Binney replied for him by backfiring twice, causing the waitress to drop a coffee inside the diner.

"Sometimes I feel safer on my Hog," Wolfwood confided to his son, "but your mother won't let me ride it anymore."

"Dad, what are you, seventy-six?"

Nicholas sighed. "Something like that," he said. "At least I think that's how old I am… Never thought I'd make it to that age… I'll have to contact Rob to find out…"

"Who?" James asked as they got out of Binney. "Oh, you mean Pastor North? That guy still gives me the willies…"

Nicholas looked a bit worried at his son. "Why's that?" he asked.

"I don't know, Pops," James said as he straightened his cap. "He's got to be as old as you, but he never seemed to age the same way, you know?"

Wolfwood leaned against his car. "Oh, I look old to you do I?" he snapped to redirect the conversation towards himself and not their benefactor.

James scratched the back of his neck. "You know I didn't mean it like that Dad… though the salt and pepper hair does kind of say everything you know…"

Nicholas stood back and huffed. "I thought it made me look distinguished!"

James laughed. "Yea, a real Cary Grant!"

The Reverend nearly broke out laughing. "His hair's still black!"

"Probably shoe polish," James noted with a chuckle as he held the door for his father.

David stood up from the table he was seated at with his wife, Gretchen, and waved to the pair entering the diner. James removed his cap and waved it back at him, then was grabbed by the waitress and smothered in kisses.

"Hi Betty," he managed to get in as he could breathe again.

"I should have warned you," Wolfwood commented. "She's been working here since September."

"Jimmy P, ah have been waitin' for you," she giggled in her heavy southern accent, her bright blond hair tied up in a tight bun on the back of her head like a lamp. "Where have you been hone-y?"

"Out in the Pacific mostly," he said trying to point with his thumb. "A 29 based in Guam."

"Oooh," she hugged him. "Bombin' them Japanese? My baby's been a bad boy!"

"Trying to be," he grinned and kissed the girl again. He then sent her towards the kitchen as he pointed to those waiting for him. "I'll catch you later darlin'!" He straightened his jacket and collar and looked over at those smirking at him. His face was flush red as he ran his fingers through his hair to return it to the swept back lay it had before.

"Hail the concurring hero!" David said in a slightly raspy voice.

"Greetings Administrator of Veteran's Affairs," he bowed towards his brother, "and his lovely wife as well." Gretchen smiled and nodded. He sat down, David to his left, his father to his right.

"So, what will you have?" David asked as he handed him a menu.

"MEAT!" was his reply. "Anything that doesn't crawl. If I see another C Ration…"

"Better than the hardtack we broke teeth on," David winced. "At least those C Rations had meat in them."

"If that's what you want to call that glop that was in those cans," James mumbled as he looked at the menu.

"Zey don't feed you vell in ze Offizair's club?" Gretchen asked in her Swedish accent. James looked up at her and saw a rather odd look on her face. She smiled and sipped her coffee.

Xuru squirreled up her nose. "Who is this Gretchen character?" she asked the Kuroneko as he sat washing himself in public yet again.

"Gretchen VanDermier was the daughter of the Swedish family that moved into the house the Murrah's used to live in," the cat explained.

Xuru sat back and blinked. "Isn't she the girl who had the hots for Jerry Saverem?"

N'ya glared at her. "Jerry died," he said quietly so as not to let those below hear him.

"Oooh…" the Junior-Demon said. "What's with her then? She seems a bit cold towards James, even for me…"

Puruu noted that on her pad. "That's true," she said to the cat. "If Xuru felt it, something must not have been right then."

The cat lowered his ears as if hearing the story was bad for him. "Truth be told, she is correct. There was a time when James Saverem could not say a truth if his life depended on it. A real Münchhousen…"

"A what?" Xuru asked.

"A pathological liar," Puruu said as she looked back at Millie, worried where this story was heading.

Xuru looked at the cat. "Do you know something, furball?" she asked him. He sneezed and rubbed his nose.

"I think I'm getting hay fever," he said dropping down to the floor and heading for the stairs.

"That's not good," Xuru said. Puruu could only nod in agreement.

The ride home from the diner was an adventure, as James had expected. The one hundred and fifty mile mark was met with Binney along side the road waiting some fresh oil in her throat. A quick check of all her other vital fluids, and the two men were off once again. Roughly ten miles from home they stopped to get some fuel, and were passed by David and Gretchen in their olive drab U.S. Army Chevrolet sedan.

"They're living at home?" James asked his father as the car drove by with a honk of its horn.

"They moved into her parent's house when they moved to Florida last spring," Nicholas said. "The Navy has been keeping her father busy keeping the old aircraft they use for trainers working."

James looked at the roof of the car as they headed out of the gas station. "Oh tell me they're not using those old Brewsters still…"

Wolfwood chuckled. "You mean those cranky old Buffaloes? I think only for target practice anymore."

"Good – that's what they deserve," James grumbled. "Their wiring harnesses were a nightmare."

"Sounds like you had your share of run-ins with them," his father said with a grin. He then looked at him with a confused expression. "I thought you flew bombers, not fighters…"

James nodded. "I trained in a Brewster, and I had a friend who decided to try and restore an early F2A that was in our base in San Diego… It was a mess from the get go. If I hadn't torn out the magneto in that beast, he would have tried to fly it and probably would have been killed."

Nicholas smiled. His son had been a troubled boy. He was proud to see how well he had finally turned out. He had survived the war and was coming home for the first time in two years. He knew what was waiting for him – questions about his campaigns, where he was going to be stationed, whether he'd reenlist or finally settle down with his high school bombshell Betty Donahue. He was in for an unsettled night.

It was a quiet last five miles, as James had nodded off. Maybe he'd avoid the questions by just sleeping the night away.

Wolfwood turned into the parking lot for the rectory that he and Millie now lived in beside the old small church. The old home was now the residence of David Jr. and his wife Jennifer. They had their own brood of six gallivanting throughout the property, and she was expecting yet again in the spring. Wolfwood felt that Millie's presence simply meant this old property would forever be blessed with children.

Groggy and tired himself, he nudged his son to let him know they had arrived. James looked about and shook his head.

"It's all changed," he commented. "Where's the barn? Where's the old coop?"

Wolfwood looked about the darkening property. "The new barn will be on the opposite side of the house so this rectory building could be built here. We used the framework and wood of the old barn to build it, since there was a shortage of materials during the war."

"I hope you saved all my tools," James said looking a bit worried.

"Naa… threw them out – couldn't stand them anymore!" Nick kidded him. "Of course I took care of them! They're in the garage behind the rectory. While we're barn-less, the garage has been where we repaired our tractors and stuff."

"Probably where the motorcycle is too," James jabbed back. Wolfwood snorted.

"Yes," was all he said and headed for the house.

Millie blushed as she saw all those gathered to hear her story in the chapel. She looked down on her belly. "Oh, I was chunkier then, wasn't I?" she said to the children and parents before her. Many giggled as her pregnancy wasn't helping in the description any. Wolfwood looked up at the ceiling as she pondered the snickering.

"Well, you were much older then my dear," he tried to side-step question with.

Millie shook her head. "It still confuses me…" she said as she had the 1945 Christmas tree appear at the altar, it large Victory Star on its peek making it look a bit top heavy. She scowled.

"I never did like that star," she said. "It always looked out of place…"

James indeed was not getting much respite once he had set foot in the new rectory. The grandchildren wanted to hear all his war stories – and this was only the group from the old homestead. Come Christmas Day, he was bound to be the center of attention when the other children from his brothers and sisters and some of _their _children arrive for the massive family get-together – after all, even Meryl and David were grandparents now. His mother had nearly squeezed the life out of him when he had arrived, and now the kids were chasing after him like hound-dogs on a hunt for a rabbit.

After dinner, James had managed to vanish, excusing himself from the scouring he was going through for a break hiding in the garage. Nicholas found him checking over his tools and his old workbench that they had brought in from the old barn. He smiled as he saw him polishing some of his favorite wrenches.

James laughed at his folly. "I baby these more than I do Betty, don't I?" he asked his father. Wolfwood had to agree with that assessment, as he had seen him more with his tools over the years than his high-school sweetheart. He noticed the half-hearted chuckle and worried.

"Is there something on your mind?" he asked James. "You seem deep in thought…"

"Naa," he replied and set the wrench back in its proper spot in his rolling chest. "I've just had a lot of stuff working on the burner Pops… Mostly military business, if you know what that means…"

Wolfwood knew what it meant – stuff he couldn't talk about in public.

For a bomber pilot?

He slapped him on the shoulder and nodded towards the steps up into the main building. "The tree's about to be lit… care to join us?" he asked.

James closed the drawer for the wrenches. "Sure." He looked at his chest and sighed. "Pops?"

Wolfwood turned and looked down the steps at his son. "Yes?"

James scratched his ear. "Have you ever _had_ to not tell the whole truth about something?"

Wolfwood considered this, especially with his past haunting him from time to time. "Should I get out my portable confessional out?" he asked as he remembered his little head-borne church he used to carry around.

James laughed. "It's not that bad," he said. "Never mind, let's just light that tree."

Part of the gang was there when they stepped into the living room. David and Gretchen had arrived with their boy Douglas. He was dressed in his Army Air Force uniform.

"Hey there Ramp Rat!" James kidded him.

"Hey there Sky Jockey," the boy kidded back. He suddenly acted a bit withdrawn as his mother placed her hand on his shoulder and glared at his uncle. "How are you doing?"

James could not but notice the feel in his voice and the look from his mother. Even the look on his brother's face wasn't all that pleasant as before.

"Great kiddo, fine," he said. "Any problems?" he asked, directing his question towards Gretchen, since the source of this odd behavior seemed to be coming from her.

"Not now," David said nearly under his breath. "Not at the tree lighting." He too directed his last statement towards his wife. She withdrew her hand and nodded.

"No no, if you have something to ask me, let's have it," James said, now a bit on the defensive.

"Gentlemen," Nicholas light-heartedly said as he stepped between them then got serious, "NOT at tree lighting, and NOT in front of your mother, do you hear me?"

David coughed. James drew in his breath then slowly let it go, nodding to his father and turning away.

"Okay everyone!" Millie exclaimed as she entered the room with a tray of snacks and drinks and noticed the silence. "Dig in!"

"Ooh! Feel the tension!" Xuru exclaimed. "I like this! That Gretchen lady must have something good on this James dude!"

Puruu hushed her partner as she saw that the Reverend had heard her and shook his head. "You'll get us thrown out!" she warned her.

Nick Jr's youngest Joshua had the traditional honor of turning on the lights this year. Millie always enjoyed the glow a freshly made up Christmas Tree. But in the silence of those looking over the illuminations and decorations, she felt the nervousness of the moment – a tenseness that was in the room with them. She grasped Nicholas' hand. He felt her grip and knew what she felt, her feelings being made clear to him by the fidgeting of her fingers in his. He sighed and looked at his sons. There was nearly twenty years difference between them, and James had always been a bit in awe of his older brother, even to the point of being afraid of him. This was the first time he had seen him actually stand up to him. It was odd, since David was usually the one defending his youngest brother.

"I'll take care of it," he whispered to his wife.

"Thank you," she replied with a shudder in her throat. The coldness of the atmosphere was obvious to him and he did not like it interfering with Millie's favorite time of the year. He patted her hand and stood up from his seat beside her.

"David, James… In my study… now." He turned and walked up a short set of stairs and looked back at the two men who were staring at him.

"Do I have to ask you two twice?" he thundered quietly. The boys scrambled to their feet and followed their father. Gretchen and Nick Jr. started to follow but stopped as they heard Millie make a hissing sound.

"Stop… this is between them," she said, never taking her eyes off the tree. She glanced up at Gretchen. "Sit down."

Xuru shivered. "Did I just feel a draft in here?" she asked.

"It has decidedly got colder in here indeed," Puruu commented.

Xuru shook. "I feel like we're actually there… damn!"

Wolfwood stood by the open door and escorted his boys into his study. He closed it and remained facing it. "Gentlemen, sit," he commanded. He turned to see them seated in the chairs before his desk. "I don't know what is going on, but it is taking the fun out of this Christmas celebration. This is supposed to be a festive occasion, not a thrashing of the Holy Father! Now I'd like an explanation!" He sat down in his chair and glared at them.

James looked over at his older brother. David sighed and looked down.

"You were never in Guam," he stated. "You never flew a B-29, and there's a good chance you're not a Major in the Army Air Force."

James now looked down. Wolfwood leaned into his desk and rested his head on his clasped hands.

"And your proof David?" he asked.

David now looked at the ceiling, not wanting to look at either his father or brother. "Gretchen's brother is stationed at Guam. He's back as well for Christmas. He told her he knew all the aircrews of the 29s based there… James is not one of them… then there's Douglas…"

"The Ramp Rat?" James asked with a bit of trepidation in his voice.

"Reverend," the parent of one of the children sitting before them listening to the story broke in, "just what is a 'Ramp Rat' anyway?"

"I was going to ask that myself," Xuru grumbled.

"So was I," Puruu said. "That is why I had her ask," she added as she pointed to the woman who had asked the question.

"Why you little imp!" Xuru grinned.

Wolfwood looked at the woman and smirked. "A ramp rat is the term some in the Air Force call the men who service aircraft."

"Nice name," Xuru commented.

Wolfwood glanced at David. "What about Douglas?"

David looked at his brother. "As we know, Douglas was stationed in San Diego as a ground services worker for flights heading west. You taught him most of what he knows about engines, James… you should know that he'd keep tabs on you."

James slammed his fist into the arms of his chair. "That's why!" he said aloud. He stood up and opened the door.

" Douglas, get up here right now!" he yelled to the shock of David and Wolfwood. He then stepped across the hallway to his room and pulled an envelope from his jacket and returned to the room, plopping it in front of his father.

"I've been hounded by Army Security for weeks now!" he growled. "Did Gretchen have him start looking around in San Diego while he was there?"

"Hey!" Douglas said from the doorway.

"Sit down son," James said with a command in his tone. "For your answer, I am a Major in the Army. No, I don't _pilot_ a B-29, I'm the chief engineer on one… at Muroc…"

Both father and son turned a bit white. "Oh damn," they said in unison.

Nicholas sat a bit dumbfounded. "Okay boys, I'm being left out of this. What's a Muroc?"

James opened the envelope and handed his father a card, one he had seen before, only he never expected it from one of his sons.

_"The carrier of this certificate is under strict orders not to divulge any of his work for the __United States__ Army Air Force – to do so shall be considered a breach of national security."_

"This is a place for forgiveness of sins and confessions," Nicholas said. "Nothing spoken here will ever leave this room."

"Aren't you doing that right now?" Xuru asked with a smirk as she leaned on the rail of the balcony.

"Something that happened over three hundred years ago is hardly secret anymore," the Reverend said to the Demon.

James smiled and scratched his head. He rested on the edge of the desk and laughed.

"Muroc is the base in California where the Air Force tests their secret and new equipment," he explained to his relations. "My last crew assignment was the testing and fixing of the equipment that held the bomb they dropped on Nagasaki."

Douglas' eyes got small as he leaned forwards. "Whoa," he said. "The atomic bomb?"

James nodded, not really wanting to look up at that moment. "When I heard of the reports of what the bomb did…" He sat on the desk edge and snorted. "Damn… I tested equipment… the bomb release… the whole assembly… I redesigned it to drop the bomb further away from the hatch… the dummy was smacking the back of the bay during the test drops…"

David sat back in his chair. "I'm… I'm sorry… When your story didn't wash…"

James grunted. "Damn OSS back-story… it wasn't going to hold up. I knew it wasn't… Not with a family like this one…" He stood up and stared at the library along the one wall. "I feel like I killed everyone in that city…"

"It gnaws at the pit of your stomach, doesn't it?" his father asked. James looked back at him, surprised by the frankness of the question.

"You understand?" he asked.

Nicholas drew in a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. "More than you or anyone in this family save your mother would know. She saved me, she really did. I've never told anyone of you what I did before meeting her, have I?"

The threesome shook their heads.

Wolfwood moved back towards the desk in his chair. "You shouldn't hear this," he said towards Douglas, "but since you're here… You must swear never to speak of this outside this room ever…"

Again the threesome nodded obediently.

He pulled on the drawer and removed an old revolver that he placed on the blotter. "I was a traveling priest and gunslinger. I gave out the lord's word and dealt with many a sinner." He sat back and looked at the old dark metal gun. "And for each I dealt with, I took on their sin as my own."

"You killed?" Douglas asked with a touch of shock in his voice.

Wolfwood placed his hands on his belly and sighed. "It was a lawless time in a lawless place that I came from," he said. "But a lone man once showed me a better way, and in a way, also led me to meeting Millie. But ever since that day I have regretted my past. At times it churns in my belly and makes me sick. But one thing this man once told me still rings true to this day. I've got to live on. Understand?" He smiled at James.

Douglas looked at the gun and his grandfather. "You?" he asked. "Nawww!"

Wolfwood picked up the gun, spun it about on his finger and whipped it into the breast pocket of his jacket in a smooth fluid move.

"Whoa," Douglas said.

"Whoa indeed," Wolfwood said as he looked into the pocket. "It's a good thing I keep this thing unloaded… I pulled the trigger twice when I did that…"

The night settled down after that – David took his wife aside to explain the situation. But James still wasn't fully enjoying himself, as some of the children would still pester him for war stories that he knew weren't his.

Millie rubbed his shoulders after they had sent the younger ones off to the main house to sack out for Santa. "Are you alright honey?" she asked him with concern.

"Yea ma… I'm fine," he said quietly to her. "The kids were just starting to get to me, that's all."

She hugged him. "Telling all those fake stories must have been a challenge… you should become a creative writer."

He looked over his shoulder at her. "You knew?"

Millie smiled her infectious smile. "You mean that those stories were all made up? Sure… you know you could never get any lies past me. Besides, you promised me that you'd never lie to me ever again. So for you to tell those stories, you had to have had a good reason, right?"

He reached behind himself and kissed her on the cheek. "Ma, you're the best," he told her.

Christmas day – the children had made a mess of the main house's living room with all the paper wrapping and boxes. Millie and Nicholas stood under the mistletoe sprig that traditionally got hung in the doorway to the dining room watching the carnage take place. Nick Jr. and Jennifer both sat on the family sofa, a dazed expression on their faces. Gretchen was in the kitchen working with Meryl and her oldest daughter making the breakfast.

"Where's the boys?" Millie asked noticing that David, James and Douglas weren't there.

They trudged through the newly fallen snow back to the rectory to see what was keeping those three, since they had slept over there the night before. A check of their rooms found them empty. But Nicholas heard a sound from below the one room that told him where to search.

Millie stepped down the stairs to the garage followed by Wolfwood. There they found the missing men with another woman – Binney. Her carburetor, most of her electrical system and her head cover were spread across the floor on a parts mat.

"Aw, where are you going to find a head gasket on Christmas day?" Wolfwood exclaimed. James held one up.

"This engine's been in use by Ford for twenty years – I had a spare in my tool box," he explained as he worked of cleaning the leaky valve stems. "I'm going to have to teach you how to trim your spark. It's no wonder she eats oil like this!"

Millie smiled as her husband just stared at the strewn parts. "This is why I knew James wasn't a pilot," she said. "Why would someone with such mechanical talent waste it on flying a plane?"

James scratched his head. "But… I do fly… I am a pilot…"

Millie blinked. "Oh?"

James laughed. "Of course – as a flight engineer, I have to be certified to fly the plane if need be."

"So, you weren't telling fake stories?" she asked with a bewildered look on her face.

"Flying over Japan, yes," he explained, "but not everything I told them was made up."

Millie looked at Nicholas and shook her head. "I'm confused again…" she said exasperated. He laughed and rubbed her head.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤ **

"MERRRRRY CHRISTMAS!" a large man in red with a beard and spiky golden hair called from the doorway of the chapel. Xuru and Puruu stared over the edge of the banister to see who was making all that ruckus below them. He was carrying a large green cloth bag over his shoulder and was being assisted by a lady 'elf' who was having trouble with her shoes, having not been ready for the snow that had greeted her visit to The Source.

Millie clasped her hands together with glee. "Oh look children! Santa has arrived with all your gifts!" she exclaimed.

"That's not Santa!" a young Plant child from Earth barked. "He's too skinny!"

"Mrs. Claus put Santa on a diet this year kid!" the bogus Santa snapped back as he put the bag down on a pew.

Xuru blinked. "Is that Vash the Stampede?" she asked her partner.

Puruu was just as stunned at the bearded vision. "I'm… I'm not too sure," the Goddess in Training noted. "Possibly…"

"Whoa!" Santa Vash said looking up and seeing the two of them above him. "The ornaments move this year!"

"Is that a demon?" Elf Meryl asked.

"Is that a demon?" Xuru mocked her. She stuck her tongue out at the former Insurance Girl.

"I like the decoration she has," Vash said seeing the ball ornament still hanging from the Junior-Demon's wing. "Very festive!" Meryl didn't answer – she was having the elf squeezed out of her by her long time friend.

"You look sooooo cute!" Millie exclaimed then put her down quickly and grabbed her belly. "Ooh, I don't think I should have done that!"

"I think the baby grabbed me too," Meryl gasped as she collected the lost air she had pressed from her lungs. She looked at Millie as she continued to bend lower and lower.

"Millie? MILLIE!?"

Puruu and Xuru watched as chaos ensued. Wolfwood was on a communicator – Santa Vash was lifting Millie up and moving her to a flat surface without parishioners standing about. Children were screaming. And suddenly Xuru had a Kuroneko in her lap with his fur standing on end.

"Shrieking children! It makes my fur crawl!" N'ya gritted.

"Vash," Millie quietly said to the old gunslinger, "please, put me down!"

"Are you sure?" he asked her. She nodded and smiled.

"We must calm the children, we'll be fine," Millie half laughed as she patted her unborn child. "He just didn't like being used as a lift and really kicked me."

"Stubborn little man is he?" Vash laughed. "Sounds like his father!"

"I heard that," Wolfwood smirked as Vash put her back in the chair she had been sitting in before the children.

A door next to the altar knocked. Wolfwood rummaged through his pockets for the keys to unlock it.

"I keep forgetting that this portal needs to be left open during this time," he said unlocking the special door installed by the request of the Plants that allowed help to come into The Source from the Observers.

"Okay, where is she?" Kinza asked, much to the shock of many in the room.

"What?" he asked looking at the confused and bewildered people. "You're looking at me as if I'm dead…"

"Well… yes," both Meryl and Vash said.

oOo

**Next Episode **

**_I have had many adventures in my life _**

**_From piloting starships through ion storms _**

**_To delivering toys _**

**_I have served _**

**_And been served _**

**_I've seen death look me in the eye _**

**_I've seen new born life in my paws _**

**_To tell the truth, keeping an eye on the Saverems was possibly the most fun I had in my life _**

**_I wish I could be there… _**

**_again_****_… _**

**_Next Episode of T:MC – The _****_Oklahoma_****_ Years – Chapter Three – Interview with Kinza Part One – The _****_Homestead_****_ Project _**

**_Damn – life is too short… _**

**_Even two or three of them_**

North, Tolefson, Dr. Abigail McManus, Puruu, Xuru, Diamond Mane (Nightwatch), The Treaty of Advent, The Observers ©2003, 04 DMS – Used with Permission  
N'ya ©2003, 04 S. E. Nordwall – Used with Permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003, 04 Yasuhiro Nightow  
All characters from TRIGUN: MOON CHILD ©2003, 04 The MOON CHILD Project/DMS – Used with Permission

©2004 The MOON CHILD Project II/Denivan Media Services

**A note on origins to those who have been reading along for a while now – **

**The Characters Robert North, Puruu, Xuru and Diamond Mane-Nightwatch are RPG characters - ****©1983, 2007 DMS – Used with Permission **

**Dr. Abigail McManus, Elb Kinza Farley and anyone associated with The Observers (Forrestal and Exeter crews) are from the forthcoming book series "Mr. Gizmo" ©1983, 2007 DMS – Used with Permission **


	3. Int with Kinza ¤ P1 ¤ Homestead Project

Editor's Note #1: The following has parts translated by Babel Fish and edited by a lovely young lady who took Spanish way back in High School – please forgive any odd speech as we no not what we unleash at times!

Editor's Note #2: Please excuse the lack of our hosts to this story, Millie and Nicholas. They will be along as the tale progresses, but in this story we learn a bit more about some of the background characters.

TRIGUN: MOON CHILD  
**THE OKLAHOMA** **YEARS  
**Based on "Distant Lives" (FFN #3519328/9) from Trigun: Moon Child

**Chapter Three**

**Interview with Kinza  
Part One**

**The Homestead** **Project  
**By R. A. Stott

With thanks to TiredGamer for his input  
Edited by S. Nordwall

Sections of this story based on The Lugia Chronicles, After Chronicles: Year of the Cat & After Chronicles: The RPG

The chapel began to swell with parishioners as news began to filter down to the schoolhouse that Elb Kinza Farley had arrived. To the Plants of Deneb One/Gunsmoke, he had been held in high esteem for the help this alien had given them in saving them from near disaster years prior. It had been his diligence and resolve during the crisis of the Second Moon that saved those on the Third Moon, including Cindy Montgomery, the celebrated Plant of Detroit. And many still found his courts marshal to have been the worst thing to have happened to them, but admired him for demanding one when the Federation had thought better of it. "If you're not willing to make an example of me for breaking the rules, who will you then?" was his simple explanation to the court.

Their hero Kinza had returned. It had to be a miracle, right?

Wasn't he dead?

"Dead?" the Tomassamassa asked. He grunted as he pulled a scanning rod out to check on Millie's condition. "Well, not in this time-line," he said as he stepped over to the seated lady. He suddenly found a hand rubbing the fur on his head. He looked up to see her crying her eyes out.

"You're my Christmas gift this year Mr. Fuzzy, right?" she asked him through her tears.

Kinza swallowed. "Geeze, what did I do, go out in a blaze of glory? No, don't tell me – Knowing the future is a no – no!" He then found himself being embraced in a smothering hold. He still managed to get his readings.

"Mother and child are fine," his muffled words came from behind the constrictive hug. When he managed to get released from that grip, he found himself being swallowed up in another bawling crying fit, this time Meryl, much to Vash's amusement.

"Sorry to tell you, buddy," Wolfwood kidded his friend, "but your woman found another man – and he happens to be fuzzy!"

"I'm shocked!" Vash ribbed in mock anguish.

"You don't understand," Meryl cried to Kinza's embarrassment. "I never got the chance to thank him for coming after me when…"

"_DING!"_ the patch on Kinza's uniform chimed. "_HISTORIC ERROR - DO NOT CONTINUE… TO DO SO WILL DO POSSIBLE HISTORIC DAMAGE… SAM-System Unit 1."_ Meryl watched as Kinza rolled his eyes and slapped the emblem and snorted.

"Nice and delicate there SAM," he grumbled.

"I take it that is someone important?" Puruu asked Vash from over the banister of the balcony where she and Xuru had been sitting while they were observing Millie's tales of Christmas past in Oklahoma.

"Puruu?" she heard before Vash could answer her. She looked down and saw the visitor looking up at her and pointing. "Xuru, you too?"

"Well, he certainly knows us," the demon giggled as she watched him squirm.

"Aw, frack, you're kids!" he said. His patch chimed again, making him swat his chest.

"Oooh, you know us when we're older?" Xuru giggled with a coy wink. Kinza blinked.

"Oy," he said. "Look folks, the only reason I'm here is because Exeter was the nearest available ship within the Dimensional Barrier Zone that links to this Source of yours. Since I happen to be on duty at the time and the doctor was busy in surgery, they sent me instead…" He thought for a moment about that then looked at the doorway back to the ship. "Is this why they were snickering back there?"

"Well, how often do they send the security chief to do a doctor's duty?" Wolfwood asked the Tomassamassa. Kinza rubbed his nose and pondered.

"More often than you'd think," he grunted as he was patted on the back by some of the parishioners, some of whom were showing their children to him and some of whom were just simply amazed to see a piece of their past standing before them again.

"We should tell Sara that you're here," Meryl exclaimed. "She really is the one who missed you the most!"

Kinza held his paws up. "Miss Stryfe, I appreciate it, but I am under direct code twelve orders – the less I discuss things and do my job, the less chance for contamination for the future." He was promptly bowled over by a woman with long blond hair.

"I thought I heard you!" Sara Montgomery called out as she lifted the small officer off the ground and spun him about like a stuffed doll.

"Well… it's nice to see you too," he said with more than a little bemusement in his voice. When the world stopped spinning about, he saw a man and child at the doorway looking at them. "Hi…" he said to them. "Family?"

Sara looked hard at the Tomassamassa. "You… you don't know me, do you?" she asked.

Kinza cleared his throat and eyed the patch on his uniform as he heard a warning chirp come from it. "I know of you, but no, at this time you and I have not met yet." The chirping ceased and he wiped his brow.

Sara put him down as he straightened his uniform. "I'm sorry we can't discuss this much more," Kinza said to her and the rest of the congregation, "but the computer system we use to prevent contamination works both ways. It warns us what not to say, and warns everyone else what not to discuss with us in the Observation Corps. As a matter of fact, when I get back, I'm going to have to have a little discussion with the duty officer about sending me here with so many folks who'd want to see me it would seem!" He growled a cat-like snarl that the children giggled over. N'ya understood it though, as he lowered his ears and curled up tight in Xuru's lap.

"What did you or North tell me once…" Wolfwood started to say while scratching his head. "Oh yes… reference point! Can you give us a reference point?"

Kinza looked at the preacher and smiled. "I just got back from duty on Earth – finished in 1965."

Millie blinked as Wolfwood stepped back wishing he hadn't asked that. "Wait a minute…" Millie started to say.

"Whoa! Look at the time," he jumped in knowing that Millie never knew just how much help they had and the protection provided the entire time they were in the past on Earth. "I guess you need to see that duty officer now, right?" he continued as he shunted the perplexed officer to the door.

"Why didn't you ever stop in for dinner?" she asked as Wolfwood stared at her. "The children would have loved to meet you!"

Kinza yanked on his collar. "Err, it would have been nice," he said with a bit of nervousness, "but they weren't suppose to know of aliens like me."

"Ah, what a pity," she smiled.

Puruu sat back and looked down at the furry officer as he waved to everyone and departed the chapel.

**-------------------------------------**

"He's been expecting you."

Puruu stood at the entry ramp to the small starship. She had been greeted by another Tomassamassa – a female, slightly smaller than the officer she had seen the other day at the Forgiveness Chapel. She had moved into the past, roughly twelve years, and moved one dimensional level above the one she had come from. This Kinza Farley fellow was a tough cookie to track, even for a goddess in training. She had returned to a few weeks prior to his passing in search of information on the Saverem's. She found him on his home world of Pola-Lortos V.

She felt uneasy. He had obvious reasons for being there.

"Are you his wife?" she asked the woman Tomassamassa.

She laughed slightly. "No, I'm his sister-in-law, Koni," she replied. "Please, would you care to come in?"

Puruu looked over the spacecraft. It was simple, long and low – probably extremely fast, yet old. She felt as if it could tell many a story on its own, but the one she felt right now told her one thing. It was anchored. A starship is only anchored if berthed for a long period. The ship was there until the end.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm being intrusive," she apologized. "I must be going…"

"Please," Koni stopped her, "don't go. He's been waiting for some time now to see you. Besides, isn't this for your class project?"

"Darn tootin' it is!" Xuru barked and making Puruu jump. "What's the idea of going off without me?"

"What's all that ruckus going on out there Koni?" a deep voice said behind the girl Tomassamassa. "Oh, visitors."

A tall humanoid shape stepped down the ramp and bent over to see past the hull of the ship. Xuru and Puruu were surprised by seeing that the form was very much mechanical.

"A robot?" Xuru asked.

"No, an android… class one I would assume," Puruu corrected. "I sense a soul inside."

The mechanical man smiled. "Very intuitive, my dear!" he said. "Welcome! Welcome aboard my ship! I am Heswald Nepto, the Alman of this ship."

Xuru cocked her head. "Alman?" she asked.

"Captain I believe some would call it," the android grinned. "Please make yourselves at home!"

"They're here to see Kinza, Nepto," Koni explained to the android.

"Are they?" he exclaimed. "Well now, he is very lucky, very lucky indeed to get two lovely ladies to visit him. Mind your wings… I'm afraid Pegasus was never built with those in mind."

The ramp led up into the bridge section of the ship. Puruu and Xuru looked around as Koni excused herself to let Kinza know that his visitors had arrived. Nepto stood at a chair that faced what would be assumed the controls to the ship, his hand rubbing across its headrest.

"Mr. Kinza is a very good man," Nepto said almost nervously. "He served me well over the years as my navigator and security officer. I'm sure he'll be delighted to see you two finally… again I mean…"

Puruu looked at the android with concern. "Are you okay sir? You seem distracted…"

Nepto looked at the chair and sighed. Xuru found this mechanical man's face hard to discern – his large oval eyes never blinked. But other components – his mouth and eyebrows, allowed him to be very expressive – something necessary in one whose soul had been captured within a machine she guessed.

"I knew of your coming as well," Nepto quietly said. "Kinza told me." He drew in a deep breath, which surprised the girls, as they hadn't figured an android to be able to do that. "He told me that he expected a visit from you two… near the time he would leave us." The android leaned heavily against the console and looked over at them. Sorrow crossed his face that made Puruu catch her own breath. Xuru turned away as if to look around.

"Nice ship you have here," she said as she noticed a tall cylindrical device standing in the center of the room beside what she thought was the commander's chair. She couldn't help feeling as if it was watching her, as it had monitor screens displaying all sorts of readouts along its middle section, and a pair of dials side by side that made it look like eyes on a metal snowman.

Nepto gave them a weak smile. "Yes… but she'll never be the same without her best pilot." He rubbed his mechanical hand over the seat-back again.

A human woman entered the bridge from one of the aft doorways. She was nearly as tall as Nepto. She had raven black hair and the greenest eyes either of the girls had ever seen. At first the woman looked a bit worried by their presence, but then she smiled and nodded towards them.

"This is Ariel," Nepto noted as he walked over to the woman, "my partner and wife."

Xuru looked between the two. "Ummm," she was about to say when Puruu cleared her throat for her to hold her comment. She leaned on the cylinder, until is spun about and the dials DID look at her.

"Do you mind?" a cranky woman's voice erupted from the device. "I'm not a leaning post, girlie! I'm the ship's computer!"

"Now Mother," Ariel said calmly, "she didn't know."

The computer huffed. "Well she keeps swatting me with her wings!"

Nepto looked sour at the unit. "Mother… cogitate!"

The unit spun about. "Oh very well," it grunted and retracted into a hole in the deck which then sealed shut with a hiss.

"She's your Mother?" Xuru asked a bit confused. "What sort of universe is this?"

Ariel laughed. "No - no, that's just the name the engineers gave her." She looked at the girls and nodded. "Koni told me that you two had arrived. Please, if you will follow me."

Nepto remained on the bridge as the trio entered the mid section of the ship and the crew's quarters. They found Koni and another Tomassamassa standing at a doorway halfway down the corridor watching them approach. She bowed to them.

"This is Lotha, Kinza's brother," she noted, "and my husband. Kinza is in here. He is resting, but is waiting for you."

Puruu bowed back to her. "Thank you your majesty," she replied as Xuru stared at her partner. She quickly joined her in bowing as well, though with less of a lean.

Koni blinked. "You knew?" she asked.

"Knew what?" Xuru asked, still a bit out of the loop.

"That you are the Queen of Pola-Lortos V? Yes m'am. You won the title in the Royal Marathon, and were the people's choice," Puruu noted then looked at their human host. "And that you are the former Queen of the planet Juantaur? Yes – I researched this level for who we may meet during our visit here from our databank. We are allowed to do at least that with it – we just can't use it in any other way for our project."

"So that's where you were yesterday," Xuru snidely grinned. "I researched our interviewee. That's why I knew he never had a wife." She looked at the two Tomassamassa who were staring at her with trepidation. They found it interesting to see a demon with concern on her face. "How is he this morning?" she asked.

Lotha gestured to the door. "As Koni said, he's resting. He's better than the last few weeks though I believe it is the pain-killers that are keeping him now." He looked away. Puruu felt a surge go through the male cat-bear and she smiled.

"Would you rather I go in like this?" she asked.

He looked back to see that the Goddess in Training had become a beautiful girl Tomassamassa in robes.

"Hey, no fair!" Xuru complained. "I don't even know what a Tomassamassa demon looks like!"

Puruu grinned. "They look like dogs!"

Xuru stepped back with a quite visible look of disgust on her face. "They look like what?"

Koni took Puruu's hand and gave Lotha an angry glance. "I believe he'd want to see you as he knows you," she said. "If humans can see the beauty in Tomassamassas, then I'm sure he only sees the beauty in humans."

Xuru leaned over with a smirk. "But we're not human!" she commented.

Puruu reverted to her first form. "That does not matter Xuru. It's the idea that does. Thank you, your majesty. May we enter?"

Koni smiled and opened the door. The room was dark. A large window on the outer wall was the only thing illuminating anything.

"Kinza?" she called. "Your visitors are here."

There was a coughing. "Thank you Koni… please send them in." The voice was raspy and wet, as if the speaker had the worst cold imaginable.

"Huh, I don't remember there being any windows on the outside when I flew in," Xuru said as they entered.

"It's not a real window," Kinza weakly said from the dark side of the room. "It's a projection of what would be a window if one was there… Besides, right now, I couldn't withstand direct sunlight anyway."

They turned and looked at the bed in the corner. A frail and mostly bald Kinza sat propped up by a set of fur covered pillows. He smiled the best he could his eyes showing the strain of the illness that was running through his body.

"Come closer, please," he said. "I am so happy to see you two again after so long… even if it is only the second time you actually have seen me. How is your project going?"

The two girls slowly walked up to the bed. He nodded towards the two chairs that were waiting for them. Xuru held her breath as she noticed that he had a special chair there just for her. A narrow backed seat designed especially for a person with wings sat to Kinza's right.

"Our project is coming along fine," Puruu told him as she sat to his left. "May I ask how you knew we were coming?"

Kinza coughed slightly. He wiped his mouth on a cloth and looked at her with his head resting on the pillow. "You told me, but you did so when you were much older. We will have many adventures together, though I'd hardly call this one an adventure…"

"We will?" Xuru asked. Kinza looked over at her and nodded.

"My years of service with Captain Strom and Forrestal… And then there were Robert North and his many adventures… And of course Captain Edwards and Exeter… He closed his eyes momentarily as he swallowed and returned to looking at the ceiling. "It's funny… it was with her that I first met the Saverem's… they are the topic of your project, I am correct?"

"Yes, sir," Puruu noted. He shook slightly and she thought he was in some pain. It took a moment to realize that he was laughing.

"I'm no sir, dear," he jibbed at her. "I'm just an Elb."

"Elb?" Xuru pondered.

"Lieutenant," Kinza stated. "I believe they call the rank Lieutenant. Just call me Kinza, please… after all, I'm still on duty…"

Xuru sat back. "On duty?" she cracked. "You've gotta be kidding!"

Kinza smirked. "They couldn't bear retiring me, as I would have lost my pension… besides, while the Alman is on board, he's the sir here, not me."

"Very philosophical," Xuru commented. Puruu made a slight sound of disapproval. Kinza shook his head at her.

"No – no – A good dose of sarcasm is good for you at times – clears the soul of built up tension," he said pointing slightly with his left bandaged hand. Xuru added a quick tongue stick at her partner making Kinza shake even more, a smile rolling across his face. He reached over and patted her hand that was resting on the mattress.

"You're gonna kill me dear," he kidded her. He laughed lightly. She smiled back but understood what he meant. She'd have to settle down.

"Now then… What would you like to know?" he asked. He looked over at Puruu. She had a pad in her lap and a quill pen.

She shrugged. "Well, you mentioned the beginning?"

Kinza nodded. "Umm, the beginning… Our first assignment to the Saverem's was before they ever arrived…"

**-------------------------------------**

"Breeching the trans-dimensional barrier in five – four – three – two – one…

The space two hundred fifty miles above Earth's moon erupted in the wave fold displacement of a starship returning to normal space. Her long flat shape first glowed a yellow of the universe it had just left, shifted slightly to the red for a moment, blue next, then finally stabilized in a buff gray.

"UNS Exeter has arrived on Earth Normal Dimension Zero," the computer spoke. "Date and time at target sight – August 12th, 1893 – zero two hundred hours."

Kinza looked over the set of documents and plans that had been dropped on him and his crew. He snorted and looked at the shuttle that was carrying the load of equipment he needed to pull the job off.

"Are you sure about this Kinza?" a fellow crewmember asked as she looked over his shoulder. "I mean, why do you need me in on this?"

"Shadsie, you're very much needed on this project, you know that," he told the woman with the feline-like face and fur. She wasn't a Tomassamassa – she had been rescued from another world the ship had visited by a friend of his and was now working along side them in the Observer's Special Tasks Unit. She had been merged with the cells of her own pet cat in a strange experiment using a transmat in that other universe, so she was covered in a soft gray fur, save her head, which still had her shoulder-length blond hair. Otherwise, she was still quite human, save the cat tail as well…

"A Tomassamassa's tail is a very rare thing," he would crack at her when she'd snap hers in anger. "It's short, easy to miss, and even easier to kick. But just don't try it, 'cause our claws are sharper than a crack of any tail!"

"I need you there as a quick deploy agent, Shadsie," he said, "and I need you to learn the outlay of the property."

"If you say so," she said nervously. "This is my first official mission after all."

He reached over and shook her by the shoulder. "You'll do fine. Is Nightwatch ready?"

She looked over at her very special Pegasus-like horse, his long wings neatly tucked against his body. "Why are we using Nightwatch?" she asked.

Kinza looked at her then at the horse. "You're asking me? You'll have to ask Rob that one… he said something about being able to hide himself well within the group?"

Shadsie stepped over to her prized stallion. "I sure wouldn't want anything to happen to you," she said to the large black horse.

"Nothing will," he replied. "You know that I'm quite capable of cloaking myself. What better way than to become their horse?"

"We still need to get a second horse," Kinza noted. "A REAL horse, not a Cheverian."

Nightwatch snorted. "What? They don't have talking winged horses on this Earth?" he kidded him.

"Hardly," another voice said. They looked over at the man walking in from the landing bay's main hatchway. Shadsie nearly laughed out loud.

"What is with you?" she asked North as she saw what he was wearing. "Have you disavowed science for religion?" seeing him in the garb of a pastor.

He looked at himself and laughed. "Repentance! This is what I get for all the hell I put everyone through in our last mission (¤ See bottom of page)." Kinza rolled his eyes and grunted.

"Sure, NOW you request forgiveness!" he jabbed back.

North laughed. "Anyway, not really. This just happens to be my cover for this mission… While you and your crew are building the homestead, I get to set up shop at Fort Supply along with Burnside, Tolefson and a security crew from Forrestal."

Kinza scratched his head. "I was wondering about that… Why is Roy sending his chief helmsman in training out on a mission like this?"

North leaned against the table that the plans were spread across. "Tolly needs the experience. Giving him the rank of a Corporal in the U.S. Army at this time and giving him a basic command will be good training for his responsibilities. He needs the challenge. We already know he can fly a starship like his pants are on fire… now we'll see if he can use that quick wit of his for something other than showing off for all the yeomen!"

Kinza laughed. "Sure, like that'll ever happen!"

"Approaching final launch coordinates," the com alerted the bay. "All crews to their posts. Stand by for special probe launch. All flights ready for launch."

"That would be us," Kinza noted as he picked up all the papers and inserted them into a briefcase. He patted Shadsie on the back and gestured to the shuttle next to them. "Time to go."

The flight from Exeter to the panhandle region was relatively short, though Kinza's approach was done without any lights on. Even though there were few people to see his ship, and that UFO records were not kept yet, he certainly didn't want to be the first. But flying by sensors only meant for a slightly harrowing ride for the passengers. Kinza on the other hand was having a ball.

"Pack of buffalo ahead," he said with a smile.

"Where?" North asked as he squinted to see anything in the dark. "Do you see anything Shads?"

"Just a little," she replied as she noticed Kinza now grinning. "You can see those?"

"Like it were daylight, m'am," he said. "Now I could make it easier for you all to see by switching the front view to a night vision view, but personally it hurts my eyes. Five minutes to the outskirts of Fort Supply… scanners show our Conestogas are waiting for your group… umm… Pastor North is it?"

North laughed. "I guess I'm definitely going to have to study this," he said waving a Bible. "Thanks Shadsie."

She shook her head and adjusted his collar. "You're going to need it! You don't just learn that overnight."

North nodded. "I will make do, and in the mean time, you can keep me up to snuff if I make a mistake?"

"You know it mister," she said poking him on the nose with the blunt side of her clawed index finger.

The forest outside of Fort Supply hid the shuttle as they disembarked Tolefson the security detail, Burnside and North. The security team was to march into the fort. Burnside would follow as the new operator of the fort's PX and general store using the larger of the two Conestoga wagons. North would wait until dawn to start out with the smaller wagon. He would set up in the waiting chapel that sat between the store and the Territorial Commissioner's Office. An advance team had set up the chapel to act as the central base for the upcoming operation.

Kinza and his group was the advance for the homestead. The shuttle left North behind for that location.

"Okay gents," Kinza said to the three engineers that were with them, "we build it using the same way the folk around here build them – local lumber, materials and supplies. Shadsie, if you'll hand out these…"

She looked at the two booklets she handed the engineers then back at Kinza. He smirked as he held his copies up.

"These are your guides gentlemen. These are your life lines, your bibles, your holy grails - The Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs. Everything we will need will be in here. We don't have to wait the customary two to three months for delivery since we have an operative in Chicago who can get most of this equipment within a day of ordering. The delay factor is normally only three or four days, so we must schedule appropriately. Dickinson, I want you to work on the barn structure. Foley, you're on the house and coop. Toll and his brother will assist you when he gets here with the first load of goodies. In the meantime use the catalogs to order up the stuff for the inside of the cabin – stove, cabinets, furniture… follow the list that we have here that was provided by the land developer union… Any questions?"

The shuttle descended towards a hill out on the outer plains. It landed near a large tree.

"Okay folks, we need to deploy the cover tent as soon as possible," Kinza ordered. "Shadsie, as soon as it's light, take Nightwatch and scout the area. Use the scanning rod to make references for our topographical maps – scanning from altitude is one thing, being on the ground is another."

Dawn on the lower prairie came up with the chirping sounds of crickets in the swaying grasses. Shadsie mounted her horse, finding that the Cheverian had used his powers and hidden his wings.

"Whoa! Lookin' pretty there Miss Shadow!" Foley grinned as he came out of the tent in his new-old clothes. For the duration, ship's uniforms were out.

Shadsie looked at the engineer with puzzlement. "Huh?" she asked.

"Ah - good idea Nightwatch," Kinza noted. "You never know when there might be someone around."

Shadsie scowled at the Tomassamassa. "What are you talking about?" she asked with a bit of perplexed anger in her voice.

"I have cloaked you as I have my wings," the Cheverian said with a whinny. "It's for your own safety."

Shadsie pulled off her riding glove and found something she hadn't seen in nearly ten years – a human hand without any gray fur covering it. Nightwatch felt a shiver run through his rider.

"Would you like to see what you look like?" Dickinson asked as he held out a shaving mirror.

"NO!" she shouted as she hurriedly put the glove back on. "No… no, that's okay… come one Nightwatch!" She turned the horse about and headed off towards a stand of trees at the base of the hill.

"Was it something I said?" Dickinson asked Foley.

Kinza sighed and turned on a personal cloaking device. It made his fur crawl as his form was covered in the body of a small burly man. "I don't blame her…" he said.

"Sir?" Foley asked.

Kinza snorted – or the man he had become snorted – "She's been Shadowcat for so long now… maybe she just isn't ready to be reminded of her former self."

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

Kinza closed his eyes and smiled. "Shadsie was always such a nice person to work with," he whispered. "Maybe it was because of all the humans I dealt with, since she was part cat herself it was easier for us to work together – I don't know… Foley and Dickinson… those clowns… I'm surprised that the buildings ever got assembled… or at least to the point that they needed to be."

"Needed to be?" Xuru asked.

He nodded. "The idea of these homesteads was that they would be nearly complete. The homesteader would finish the home and barn to their needs. But since this location wasn't a set homestead, meaning that it wasn't originally on the Oklahoma Territory Homestead Trust's list, we were needed to build it first. Of course, that allowed us to plant our sensors and devices we needed to monitor their situations better. But with these two assigned to this project… oy…"

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Kinza examined the designs and blueprints and then looked at what was being erected before him. He shook his head.

Many of the shack-like structures that the homesteaders used had used timber from the local forests, some with full logs as the floor joists. The same principal was being used on the Saverem's home… except…

The first piece of flooring had been tacked to the logs. They rose and dipped and rolled over the natural shape of the logs making for an extremely uneven surface even for those standing and just looking at it.

"That's not very good, is it?" Dickinson asked. Kinza just shook his head.

"I may be wrong, but isn't the floor supposed to be put down after the walls go up?" Foley added.

Kinza pinched his eyes and grunted a "Yes." This first week had been a nightmare. The Tolls had just returned with the first batch of lumber a few days before and started in on building things without consulting the plans. It had taken a number of hours for them to remove the scorch marks from the ends of the logs.

"ROUGH HUNE means HAND CUT," Kinza had roared, "not sliced with a laser gun! Where were you two during the historic building course!?"

The boys looked at Dickinson and Foley. The two men looked skywards as Kinza stared at them. Now they were looking at this raft that was suppose to be the floor to the house and he steamed. He turned around and stomped into the tent.

"Kinza to Exeter," he grumbled as he lowered the field that made him look like a human.

"Hello Kinza," a friendly face appeared on his screen. He smirked and nodded towards her.

"Caroline, where did we find this crew I got?" he snarled, making the captain sit back.

"Who's screwing up now?" she asked.

He huffed. "Other than Shadsie and Nightwatch, name it!"

Caroline brought up the crew manifest and looked them over. "Dickinson and Foley? I thought you worked with them on your last mission."

Kinza snorted again. "Blasted time jumping is driving me nuts. You do realize I'm working with them over on the PM level as well at this minute… They're probably dropping in on the Stratus League as we speak!"

"It does get confusing," she smiled. Kinza shook his head and laughed as she continued to look over their dossiers. "Well, Dickinson does have family on Deneb One…"

"In May City, yea… Which got him in trouble with his superiors," Kinza noted as he scratched his ear, a bit less grumpy now that he was talking to his friend from back home. "Worst yet, I believe our targets are currently near his wife and son running some sort of restaurant!"

Caroline shook her head. "How'd he get hooked up with a local?"

"Long term entrenchment," Kinza said. "He and Foley were placed on Gunsmoke nearly ten years ago, which is pretty rough for an Observer when they're in real time… You don't get the luxury of being 'out of time' that way – not growing older and such. It's actually common practice as you know… but he jumped in almost as soon as he was stationed. It's got to be rough on them too, since the ruling on his case was that he could keep his family, but still had to meet his obligations with the Special Tasks Force of the Observers… What I still can't understand is why either one of those two were assigned to this mission."

Caroline leaned her head on her right hand as she spun a trackball across a screen of data. "Why is that?" she asked the monitor beside the readout.

Kinza twirled his claw through his beard. "Well, on the last mission those two were security in the Golden R. Their jobs were to protect Robert North while he was stationed there. Where did the Observation Corps get the idea they were engineers?"

Caroline leaned over and studied the screen of data. "Yes, I see… they were decorated twice for pulling him out of dangerous situation, the second time when he left that level in his rather final way."

Kinza grunted a laugh. "Being shot by your boss will do that to ya," he smirked.

"Ah, here it is," the Captain said. "They are listed as Security Engineers."

Kinza twisted his face. "What in Balkar's Beard is a Security Engineer?"

Caroline blinked. "I'm surprised at you Kinza… as a security chief you don't know?"

"Er," he choked as he thought. "Frack, you mean they're specialists at security devices and sensors… spy-gear and such?"

"You got it, that's why they're there…"

He ran his hand over his face. "May I have the name of the ding-dong who assigned me a pair of wire-layers to BUILD a set of buildings? I wish to thank them personally!"

Caroline laughed. "I'll see what I can do about getting someone down there to help out, but the next scheduled shuttle to your location isn't for a week. You still have natives around you, and we need to keep the visits down to a minimum."

He sat in a folding chair with a thump. "That's okay. I'll do the main building… I guess I'll have to teach them as we go. Can you see if North can come up here at some time? He knows how to fling a hammer as well…"

The Captain smiled and nodded to him from his screen. "Will do," she said. She was then cut off by a yell from outside. She could only watch as Kinza jumped up and leapt out of the tent.

The Tomassamassa looked up to see the Cheverian Nightwatch above him, his concealed wings now quite exposed and beating hard against the hot updrafts that were radiating off the ground. Shadow was leaning over his side with a very angry look on her face, her cloak down as well. He then heard her do something he had heard her do only once before – she hissed in a very cat-like way that made him take a step back. Fortunately, he wasn't the recipient of the feline curse. He looked down at the flooring fiasco below the tent and saw why they were hanging over his head that way.

The Tolls were looking up at her, the one brother with a leveling line in his hands, the other with a laser pistol. They had removed the flooring they had put down and had used the gun to slice the logs evenly.

"We're so sorry, Miss Shadow!" the thick accented Dickinson said apologizing to the pair over his head. "We didn't see you two coming up the hill!"

"NEXT ONE OF YOU WHO TOUCH MY GUNS ARE GOING TO EAT ITS DYLITHIUM CORE!" Kinza bellowed over the monitor on the bridge of Exeter. Caroline quickly contacted North.

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"Oh my," Puruu gasped.

"Ho! Hoo that must have been some building crew!" Xuru giggled.

Kinza shook a bit as he laughed too. "They weren't skilled, that's for sure. But we did manage to get the project started, if not just slightly delayed. There were other delays and incidents though. That was a rough job, that's for sure…"

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

The buildings were finally beginning to rise from the soil. The long hot summer days seemed not to faze the Tomassamassa much, even with his fur coat, since the cloaking system that made him look like a small human came with a cooling system. It was Dickinson, Foley and the Tolls who sweated the work. Shadow, a child of the desert, was already used to the dry-heat, so she would scout around with little to bother her.

The walls finally went up the day North and Tolefson arrived with added lumber from the depot east of Fort Supply. Locally sawn cedar was the choice for its durability and resistance to termites. They could only stay a day before returning to the Fort though, as they needed to continue their own preparations for the arrivals.

"I feel like we're going to have a baby," Kinza noted as he banged away on a wall.

"Expect it," North replied while tending to his papers he was taking back to the Fort. "There may be only two now, but the third will be here in October."

Kinza blinked at the man, stopping his stroke the hammer in his hand was about to strike. "She's pregnant!?"

Foley and Dickinson looked up from their work at those words. Shadow and Nightwatch were about to check out the creek area as well when they heard the Tomassamassa yelp.

"Rob, you know this is only a standard cabin we're making here," Kinza noted as he gestured to the spread out wood and lumber on the site. "Where do you expect to put this baby, especially in October? Isn't that the start of their winter here?"

North had shrugged. "Actually, that's still fall around here, but the coming year will bring an early cold break. They'll have the child on or around the 17th."

Kinza looked at the building site. "Wait a minute… just when are they coming here?"

North looked at his pocket watch. "Eight months, four days, six hours annnnnd about twenty-four minutes, with an added six months for temporal drift…" he read off.

Kinza stood back and dropped the hammer on the deck he was working on. "Why are we doing this so early?"

"Kinza, you know this has to look like a typical homestead site," North commented as he closed the lid to the watch and wound it. "Besides, it was also typical that these sites were built in advance by some of the Land Rights Associations, so they need to 'age' a bit."

The Tomassamassa shook his head and was about to comment some more when North's watch chimed. He popped it open again and looked at its face.

"Ah… Vash just put the hole in the Fifth Moon…" he noted.

Kinza now had a twisted expression. "Umm… yea… I was there…"

"And now you're here!" North pointed out to him. "Don't forget Kinza my lad, you're the one who taught me about temporal dynamics and time-line physics."

He picked up the hammer and gave a stubborn nail a thwack. "I hate temporal dynamics," he moaned.

Kinza watched North and Tolefson ride off to the south, but his eyes were drawn up to a set of dark billowing clouds starting to grow in size.

"Blast it – looks like a nasty storm brewing," he grumbled.

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"Storms?" Puruu noticed that Kinza was shaking his head.

"I've seen storms from Altair to Rigel, been through ion storms that tear sections off ships," he noted while looking at the ceiling, "but I have never been so afraid for my life as going through an Oklahoma pan-handle thunderstorm."

"Put the fear of her father in you?" Xuru gently kidded her partner.

"And your mother," Kinza jibed back while pointing at the young demoness, "and a sister and brother to boot! They were completely unexpected, and they could wreck havoc in seconds. That was the first time we went through one of those storms that day… It was hell…"

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"GET A HANDLE ON THAT TENT FLAP!" Kinza yelled through the blinding wind and driving rain. "WE'VE GOT TO GET EVERYTHING TIED DOWN!"

"WHERE'S ROB AND TOLLY!?" Shadow called as she glided Nightwatch into the rear hatch of the shuttle.

"PROBABLY UNDER SOME FORCE FIELD SHIELD, KNOWING THAT MAD SCIENTIST!" Foley yelled as he and one of the Toll's was busy lowering a section of wall they had been working on.

"OKAY, LET'S GET EVERYTHING BUTTONED DOWN AND GET INTO THE SHUTTLE!" the Tomassamassa barked. The rain was pelting down across his furry face making it hard for him to see without it flowing through his eyes. He gathered up some of his tools and started towards the ship.

His ear snapped about. He didn't need to look behind him to know that something was coming.

Shadow had the same feeling. She could hear the same thing. A rumbling and shaking was beginning to come up the hill towards them. Suddenly her ears popped as the air pressure dropped.

"GET INSIDE! NOW!!" Kinza yelled as he grabbed the other Toll by the belt on his pants, dropped what tools he had, and ran for the open doorway of the shuttle. "SHADSIE, CLOSE THE REAR HATCH!"

Now the others could hear it as well – the sound of a locomotive rolling and thundering through the valley below. Small objects in the shuttle started to vibrate and the ship began to pitch about on its legs. Kinza quickly sealed all the doors and gave the cabin space normal pressure.

Shadsie clamored for the pilot's house where Kinza was frantically bringing systems up. The dome orb shaped windows were whited out by the hard driving rain. "Is that a tornado?" she asked.

"It sure ain't no car wash!" Kinza remarked. "I'm going to bring up the shields."

"Umm, that might not…" was all Dickinson got out when the whole ship rang with the shot of a lightning bolt crossing over its hull. Shadow felt her fur stand on end as the shield circuits fizzled.

"I was going to say," Dickinson noted, "we're the on the highest spot around, we're in a metal ship…"

"We're a lightning rod waiting to be struck," Kinza finished. He reached down beside him and grabbed a handle and yanked it. "Firing ground anchors," he reported as four thumps were felt through the floor. He then got up from his seat and grabbed Shadsie.

"Everyone to the passenger cabin!" he ordered. "I don't want anyone in the pilot's house while the shields are down right now!"

The roar of the twister was making it hard to hear him or anything else for that matter now. He brought up his local scanners on the control system in the rear and stared at it as the outside world clanked and thumped on the thick skin of the shuttle.

There was another deafening bang in the cabin as another bolt of lightning rang off the hull. This was followed by a drumming of hailstones and other debris.

"HERE IT COMES," Kinza yelled as the readouts showed the pressure dropping rapidly outside. Shadsie felt an unquenchable urge run through her, possibly from her cat side, to bolt and hide somewhere – ANYWHERE – but her human side overcame the fear. She moved to the rear to make sure Nightwatch wasn't spooked by all the commotion.

To her surprise, he was simply standing there as peaceful as can be.

"It is the wind," he snorted. "Big deal."

Shadow just stared at the Cheverian until she felt an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach and in her knees. At first it felt like pressure pushing her down, then as if she were coming off the floor in weightlessness – odd when she knew she was in a sealed pressurized cabin.

Suddenly, the shaking of the ship got extremely violent. Small doors to cubbies and storage nooks popped open. Stray objects bounced about. In the forward cabin, the four men and a Tomassamassa were being punted about like footballs as the ship felt as if it were being shaken like a snow-globe. Kinza could hear many of the small antennae that lined the outer hull of the top of the ship getting wrenched off, or at least well bent.

The last set of sounds they heard over the din of the constant roar of the vortexes started with what Foley later described as the sound of a million eggs being crunched under a ten-ton weight. It was a sudden, unpleasant crushing and no one knew where it had come from at first, but it was also the last major banging noise that crashed across the hull, as the cataclysmic cacophony suddenly died down and moved off.

What was left was piercing through both Kinza's and Shadow's delicate ears though. To the others, it sounded like a mad teapot on a much too hot stove. Kinza looked over the readings on his screen, now that it had returned to normal, and he quickly lowered the air pressure inside the cabin. The whistling stopped and peace was restored momentarily – until there was again the crashing slap against the metal hull of a bolt of lightning as a crescendo to the mixed up natural orchestration that had been pounded over them in a matter of three minutes.

Kinza drew a breath and let his heart settle down. He slowly got onto his feet and stepped into the pilot's house. The others heard him laugh and plop down in his chair. Shadow came forward from the aft cabin and joined him up front.

"Heh," he said to her as she looked in. "'Found my hammer!" He was pointing directly in front of himself at the bubble window. There, the metal head had been stuck through the deceptively thick plexi-window, obviously at such a velocity that it had merely popped a cork-like section of itself out of the windshield. But it had been the source of the shrill sound.

The construction site was naturally a mess. The tent was gone – it wound up wrapped around an up-rooted tree some five miles away. Most of the lumber was strewn between the bottom of the hill and back over by the northern creek. The wall that Foley had been working on was still intact, but buried in rock, small bushes and some of the tools that Kinza had dropped. The floor joists that had been completed were now standing on end propped up by a large tree limb. The barn construction had been blasted to kindling, most of which wound up against the shuttle. The ship itself was a mess, but otherwise still intact, save the puncture to the windscreen and the lost antennae. What shocked the crew most was the fact that a large tree behind them, a grand old Blackstrap Oak, the lone tree on the hill only a few yards behind them, stood unscathed, almost laughing at the foolish attempt to build where they had started.

"I want a history scan of this hill," Kinza snorted as he stared at the tree. "We're here to protect this family. We might not have a choice where we put this house, but I'll be damned if I'll let this happen again."

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"Did it work?" Puruu asked. "Did you manage to keep the homestead safe from storms like that?"

Kinza drew in a breath. "We lost three family members over the period from 1921 to 1979 to storms and weather related events, but never around the house we built. The homestead stood until the fall of 1970, when an F5 tornado finally caught up with that tree. That was when the remaining Saverems moved to the Los Angeles area."

Xuru rested her head on the edge of Kinza's bed. "That must have been a pain – having put so much into a place only to have it blown away like that." She noticed him shaking and found his paw rubbing her curly mop.

"It's not like it was the little shack we started with," he laughed. "By that time, the homestead had done its purpose – as a matter of fact, the destruction of the site allowed for the further distribution of the Saverems, thus allowing the family to grow properly. If they hadn't moved away, Rem would have never been born. That was the truth that the Observer Corps had to deal with all the time – cause and effect. A tornado removes the old homestead – the family disperses – one of the boys' moves to of all places Alberta, Canada, and meets an exchange student from Mexico City. They move to Scottsdale, Arizona, where they follow the Saverem tradition and proceed to have a massive family… I could never understand this group. They breed like hassents…"

"Hassents?" Puruu asked.

Kinza coughed. "A rodent of Alpha Centauri Prime… They tend to have litters of a dozen or so in a shot… The point is we needed to get them started. Once that was completed, keeping them intact was the order of the day. That meant securing the site even before they arrived. That alone could be dangerous in itself."

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

The Northern Canadian River meandered about behind the homestead, and the trees that lined it in a section that nearly turned back on itself were thick and full of brush. Shadow and Nightwatch went to investigate it as the reconstruction of the property resumed. It would make for a perfect 'blind' to observe from.

She wasn't the first to see this.

Kinza's communicator beeped, making him jump. It rarely chirped so when it did, he grabbed on the box.

"Hello, the Stratus Coffee House," he kidded the unit.

There was static and rustling.

"Who are you?" the voice of Shadow asked, obviously not speaking to the communicator. "What do you want?"

The security chief in Kinza kicked in immediately. He raised the com unit up and held it out in a homing scan. He hit a mute button and looked back at the two officers with him.

"Foley, Dickinson, with me," he ordered as he drew his hand laser. As he activated his cloak, the futuristic weapon was replaced in form by a standard issue Colt. He pointed at the Tolls, who were looking at him from under the foundation. "You two keep working on the cold cellar – and NO LASERS!"

Shadow had dismounted Nightwatch in her cloaked form. The Cheverian was near the north side of the creek while Shadow was checking on the south when her keen hearing heard something large in the brush. She glared hard into the thicket and saw a pair of eyes staring back at her. She quickly tapped the box hung on her belt and stepped back.

"Who are you?" she asked as she crouched down and bore her claws from behind her façade. "What do you want?"

The man leapt out of the brush with incredible speed, but still found the spot he was jumping at vacated. He looked up to see her spinning and tucked backwards in an avoidance move. She landed with a graceful three point stance ready to take on the intruder.

"Gata demonia," the bare chest man snapped at her. His skin was rough and dark with red stripes and other ornamental tattoos across his arms. His hair was long and mussed, and he had a wild look on his face, both angry at being found and surprised at how his target had avoided him.

"This is 1893 sir," Shadow huffed. "There are very few Indians left around here, unless you're a straggler… But that was Spanish you just spoke, so I'd say you're an educated one as well…"

"¡Usted no me engaña gata demonia!" he said with a grin. "¡Veo con su disfraz¡Le tendré!" He leapt again for her. But again she jumped over his grab, though she forgot about her invisible tail, which smacked him hard against his head, making him land face down in the dirt. He quickly got up laughing.

"¡Hermoso¡Usted utiliza su cola como un azote¡Pero no ESTE vez mi gatita bonito!" He sashayed to his left as Shadow followed his movements. She felt a touch of enjoyment in this little round robin they were having. It was her first real encounter since joining the Observers with North. She grinned and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"Fine," she said as she watched Nightwatch come charging around the corner of the thicket in full flight. The man easily dodged the winged horse and took the advantage of the disturbance to leap at her again.

Shadow jumped almost straight up, and was intending on grabbing a tree branch over them when she felt a pain she hated feeling – someone grabbing her tail and yanking it. Her spine screamed as she was unceremoniously slammed to the ground.

"¡Gata diablo, usted es el mío!" he announced as he held the unseen appendage in his burly hand.

"DEVIL CAT!?" Shadow snarled. "I'll show you devil cat!" she growled as she fury swiped his chest. He stepped back as three lines of crimson trickled across his body. He looked down at the blood and gritted his teeth. He took two steps towards her.

There was a thump - Then another - Then two more. Each time, the man twitched and spasm until he dropped at her feet. Shadow scurried back a bit and looked up over the rise. Kinza was there with a less than happy expression on his face.

"Great… Just great…" he snarled as he dropped his cloak and returned his gun to its holster-less mount. "A native?" he asked Shadow. "The translator on my communicator was converting his words pretty easily… they don't normally do that for the Native American languages…"

Shadow shuddered. "He was speaking Spanish… I may have come from the southwest, but I only know a little Spanish… But the way he kept calling me Devil Cat, and the way he grabbed my tail, it was like he could see right through my disguise."

"What should we do with him?" Foley asked as Kinza turned the stunned man over.

"Nightwatch," Kinza called to the Cheverian, "can you deposit him somewhere away from here?"

"But where?" Shadow asked, worried about her horse's safety. "Where is his tribe?"

Kinza shook his head. "He's a loner. The nearest tribe is two hundred miles in that direction. From the looks of him, I'd say he wasn't even from the locals. He almost looks Navajo or Apache."

"Weren't they forced onto a reservation around here?" Shadow asked remembering some of her school lessons for years past. Kinza nodded.

"Like I said, two hundred miles that way… I had to do a security check of those before landing here. But still… Dickinson, when we get back to the shuttle, set up the short range sensors. I want to know where every living thing is around here. No more surprises, got that?"

Kinza helped Shadow up as Foley and Dickinson foisted the unconscious man onto Nightwatch's back.

"I will take him to Fort Sill," the Cheverian said, "that is where the reservation is. They will either take him in, or reject him… There is little more we can do."

"But what if he wakes up?" Shadow demanded.

Nightwatch nuzzled up to her. "You know me. I'll make sure he doesn't."

Kinza patted him on the side. "Just don't get seen as a flying horse, okay? Fly high and look like a buzzard, right?"

Nightwatch snorted. "Buzzard, indeed!" he grunted and took flight. He returned many nerve racking hours later with a mission completed.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"That must have been nerve racking," Xuru commented as she sat back in the chair.

Kinza huffed. "It wasn't the last time we would see that rascal either… he never stayed in that reservation long, and he'd take a beeline right back to the homestead each time. The third time he even broke into the house just before the arrival of our hosts for all this fun we were putting ourselves through."

Puruu scribbled her notes and leaned towards the bedridden Tomassamassa. "What did you do then?"

Kinza shook his head. "By that time, Shadsie was ready to throttle him, especially because of what he took…"

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

T-Minus ten hours until the drop of the settlers to their new homestead. The week leading up to this event had been spent in St. Louis for Shadow and Pastor North as they used the special funding they had from the Observer Corps to purchase clothing for Millie and Nicholas. North also had made sure things like the newspaper that would be found on the seat by Wolfwood and other subtle nuances were acquired for the home, placed and set prior to the arrival. It would be late in the afternoon when they would materialize in the closet, and the setting had to be just right.

Kinza stood at the broken doorway of the cabin with a snarl on his lips. The cold wind was whipping his fur on that chilly March morning. He didn't need an intruder now, and whoever it had been managed to avoid all the alarm sensors at first. He reached up and tapped a plank of wood over the doorway. A small metallic disk appeared.

"Here's the reader sir," Foley said as he handed the security chief a scanning disk player. Kinza took the disk and inserted it.

"Frack, it's him again," he barked. "Nightwatch!"

The Cheverian trotted around the corral near the incomplete barn structure. "What?" he called. He easily leaped over the fence and walked up to the door. He found Kinza holding up the player. "Oh no, not him again!" was his response.

"How many times has this person been on the property?" Pastor North asked with a look of anger and concern on his face.

Kinza understood the expression and snapped to. "This will be his third time sir."

North nodded. "And?" he prodded.

"Both times, I took him forcibly to Fort Sill Reservation," Nightwatch noted. "It would seem he doesn't appreciate their hospitality."

North looked at the image on the reader again. "How long was he in here?"

Kinza took the reader and punched through the controls. "It looks like about two days prior to our transmatting back in. He left about an hour ago."

"It's a good thing we brought the horses with us then," Foley noted as he and Dickinson were cleaning up from the intruder's obvious egg fetish – there were shells all over. There had been a chicken found in a heap as well, obviously meant to be a larger meal later.

"Looks like he was bloody well ready to set up shop," Dickinson remarked as he gathered the mess in a box for disposal.

North nodded. He gestured to the broken door. "Have the transmat engineers mend the door from the stored copy in their buffers. I'm sure they'll be glad to get this building out of their system by then anyway."

"Yes sir," Foley said. He then found himself being accidentally punted by Shadow as she steamed out of the pantry.

"THAT LITTLE BUGGER!" she screamed. "We have to replace a third of the stores in there, and HE TOOK THE RING!" She held up a little red tag she had tied to the ring Millie was supposed to put on.

North looked back at the open door. "What about the gun locker?"

She gestured back at the hidden fixture behind the door. "Oh yes, he tried, but the lock we put on it was too hard for him to break. We'll have to fix the damage to the surface though. I just can't believe he'd take the ring though!"

Kinza held a scanning rod up and inserted a plug into a booster box. He began a stronger scan of the local area.

"Damn, how does he do that?" he mumbled.

"What?" Shadow asked ready to do the man harm.

Kinza shook his head. "It's like he can sense when we're scanning for him. He was down in the thicket again keeping an eye on us, I would assume. As soon as I started to scan, he got up and ran."

"Does he still have the ring?" Shadow snarled.

Kinza keyed a switch on the box. "Transponder in it just kicked in. He'll be tracked now. Huh… Damn… HOW DOES HE DO THAT?"

"What? What?" Shadow shook him.

Kinza let the scanning rod dip and move as he followed the path the ring was taking. "He tossed it… its falling down a gorge along the Kiowa Creek bed he was following."

"I'LL KILL 'IM!" Shadow snarled and ran out of the building. Nightwatch looked back and forth for a moment then bolted after her.

Kinza grimaced at North. "Should we go after her?" he asked, knowing that the former scientist knew her better than he did.

North sighed. "When she gets in one of these moods, there's not much any of us can do. Where was it that you were taking this guy anyway?"

"Fort Sill," Kinza noted.

North nodded. "Are you sure he's Apache?"

Kinza shrugged. "No way of knowing, though he seems fluent in Spanish."

"Next time, send him to the Florida encampment," North ordered, "since I'm sure Shadsie will get her man, especially when she's like THAT!"

Nightwatch had to bear down to keep up with the speeding human-cat mix. Shadow sometimes didn't realize just how fast she could get when pressed, or when angered. He could hear her cursing to herself, blasting the man who had foolishly ruined her work for the Saverem's.

"It took me all day to choose the right ring you idiot!" she was snarling when he finally caught up with her.

"Would you care for a lift over the river?" Nightwatch offered, but before he knew it, she had leaped the length of the water barrier and was scrambling up the far bank.

"Guess not," the Cheverian said as he unfolded his wings and took flight.

The cold wind and the stark March morning was not a deterrent to her – she wanted this pest once and for all! Kinza kept her and the Indian on his scans until the two merged.

"Ooh, what a tackle!" he commented as the signal that had been the man turned from red to blue.

"Out cold, ea?" North asked as he looked at the readings.

"Like a rock," the Tomassamassa noted as he opened his communicator.

North chuckled. "Okay, Foley, Dickinson, get this place ready again… remove any signs that this ding-dong was here."

The men snapped to and started in on the intrinsic areas, such as the blood from the chicken that had been splattered on the floor. Meanwhile, North and Kinza headed out to follow after Shadow and Nightwatch.

The Cheverian was amusing himself by hovering over the spot where Shadow had given their Indian friend a flying slam with her foot. She was now crouched beside the man glaring down at him with a sour look – he had gone down too easy for her tastes right then.

"Forgiveness my dear, forgiveness," North called through the trees as he approached the pair. "He is but a man with a fetish!"

"He's got a fetish for fur!" she yelled back. "If he calls me Devil Cat one more time…" Her tail cracked like a whip.

"I'm surprised he's not calling you a Skinwalker then," North said as he made his way across the river. "The Navajo and Apache believe in shamans and spirits that can take on the forms of animals by changing skins."

Shadow smacked the sandy soil sending a spray of cold wet dirt flying. "Blast it all! Don't ever hide my body again behind that false front again! I'm quite satisfied with what I am now!" she cried as she let out the emotions she had been holding in during the entire time they had been working on the homestead. "I'm not human – not anymore… I'm a devil cat…"

North stepped up to her and lifted her up from the ground. He held her as she wept against his chest. He brushed her head with his hand.

"Hey, we've been through this before, remember?" he calmly told her. "You are still a human, and you know it. Just because this man shows up and says that you look like a cat just means that he's observant."

She pushed away slightly and looked up at North with a half-cracked smirk on her face. "Observant, ea?" she cracked.

He placed his palm against her cheek and gently rubbed her face. "Yea. My pretty little kitty that I love. Got that?" He then kissed her and let her calm down on his shoulder.

"Okay lovebirds," Kinza broke in, "we have to get Mr. Party Crasher out of here."

"Do you want me to take him back to Fort Sill?" Nightwatch asked as he landed next to them.

"No," North said as he pulled out his communicator. "He's had three strikes – he's out. North to Exeter… transmat room…"

He woke up feeling queasy and odd. He had been in a cold windy day, now it felt warm, almost hot. He looked up and saw a blurry pair of moccasins. His vision cleared to see that they belonged to an Indian child who was looking at him from under a palm tree.

"What about the ring?" Shadow asked as they made their way back up the edge of the Kiowa Creek. She watched Kinza as he walked ahead of them with the scanning rod humming. He stopped at a point where the river dropped away from the banks and got deep. He pointed into the river with the device and she gasped. He then brought it up along the sloping edge and stopped.

"There it is," he said. He walked up the split hill and stepped closer to the edge, leaning over to examine the spot better. The ring was in the muddy northern side of the river bank. Had he thrown it at the southern side, being shielded from any spring thawing, it would have probably bounced into the water. As it was, it was too far down for him to simply grab it. He then tried the obvious.

"Kinza to Exeter… transmat room…"

"A ring?" was the response. "Are you kidding? With all the filled buffers on this ship, you expect us to be able to find a small ring with our scanners?"

"You just did a fully grown man!" Kinza barked. "You sent him on a one-way trip to Florida, all expenses paid!"

"That was a large target, not something as small as a ring!" the transmat officer barked right back.

"Fine," Kinza snapped. "Stand by…"

Kinza lay down and peered over the bank. "Hey, Rob? Hang onto my belt. I'm going to try and grab it this way," he said as he slipped closer to the edge.

North saw his attempt and grabbed him. Shadow held to North's waist as well to keep him balanced. Kinza stretched and stretched. He finally extended a claw and managed to tap the ring. His second attempted slid the ring onto the nail… just as the soft soil broke out from under North's foot, sending himself and his security officer flipping into the freezing Kiowa Creek. North had shoved Shadow back as he went over, so she fell onto her tail in time to see a shower of water launch skywards.

Kinza stood up, soggy and bedraggled, his fur plastered to his body. North then stood up beside him, his face caked in river mud. Both were cursing and looking very much worse for wear.

"I do hope you still have the ring," North asked Kinza.

The security officer examined his paw. No ring.

"You know, it's at times like this that I wished I still wore that lab coat of mine," North commented. He then looked up at the lady who was having a hard time containing herself on the bank above them.

"Oh! Oh… the looks on your faces! Oh! AH!" she was laughing even as North flung a soggy chunk of river growth at her. Now he was laughing as well, even in the freezing water.

Kinza shook his head and scanned the muddy water with the rod. The signal from the ring wasn't there anymore. He looked behind them at the thicket of brush and trees. The scanner beeped.

"Balkar's beard, the blasted thing must have landed in there," he mumbled. "If I see that guy again, I'll be the one who will throttle him!" he then commented. "Shadsie, take the rod and look through there, would you? I think the captain and I need to see some fresh clothing."

Shadow caught the scanner barely as her giggle fit was keeping her amused.

"Shadsie!" North called, waking her from the laughing. "Eight hours!"

"Less than that!" they then heard. They looked back at Foley, who had come up along the far bank. The rotund man stood panting.

"What's up?" North asked, now showing a bit of shivering in the water.

"We just heard from the History Readers on Exeter," he reported between gasps of air. "They miscalculated. Millie and Nicholas will be landing here in roughly an hour and a half, maybe sooner – they can't pinpoint it, since the transference being created by Horloge isn't exact."

North shook his head. "No, that's not it – they're not taking time and relative dimensions into affect here… The signal is coming from Gunsmoke in the future to Earth in the past. I bet if we were to take a chronal reading right now, we'd find that they've started to arrive already, but they're in the red shift…"

"Chronal Doppler Effect," Kinza agreed. "So they'll continue to arrive until we see a blue shift in the chronal readings, right?"

North nodded, shivering. He looked up at Shadow, who was shaking her head at them.

"You're going to get pneumonia if you don't get out of that water," she advised them.

"Yes mommy," North chided her. "Exeter, two to transmat – water priority…"

Shadow watched them vanish then mounted Nightwatch as to cross the water safely.

It took only a few minutes to teleport up and back down to the site in dry clothes and fur for the two men. They found Dickinson looking curiously into the closet.

"They started to arrive?" North asked seeing a slight red glow from behind the clothing hanging there.

"Aye sir," Dickinson said. "It's rather strange looking – like they're in a stasis lock."

North and Kinza looked around him at the contents of the closet. Millie and Wolfwood were there, frozen in transit and time, a red sheen to their images as they traveled down the vortex of the Time Witch's path to their future. Kinza scanned them with a new rod he picked up on Exeter.

"They're coming along faster than expected all right," he noted. "I'd say less than an hour now."

North nodded. "Okay, replace the disk over the door and set all history recorders to zero. Clear the area, and prepare to get underway. Get Nightwatch up into the corral as soon as possible – he needs to be there when they search the property. Is our blind ready?"

"Aye sir," Dickinson replied. "Its access is ready."

North nodded. "Then let us retire to it. Let's do it!"

Dickinson flipped open his com unit. "Foley, how's Shadsie doing?"

Foley grunted. "The good news is she found the ring… the bad news is where it is."

The ring had played pachinko through the thicket. It was as far into the scrub as it could get. Shadow was tearing chunks of thick weeds and branches away to get closer, but the junk just seemed to get deeper and deeper. She had clawed as far as she could, and was sucking on one of her fingers that she had jabbed against a sharp stick. She could see the gold shining up at her and it infuriated her. She grabbed Foley's laser and took aim.

"You were trying to take my head off with one of these while you were building the cabin, now it's MY turn!" she snarled and shot at the tangled pile of wood scrub.

"Yo! YO!" Foley yelped as she sliced and burned the branches. "Don't start no fires down here! We don't want any fires goin' when they arrive!"

"That won't be for a while yet," she snapped until she looked back and saw Foley shaking his head.

"Na, that was bad information," he said. "They'll be here in less than an hour!"

"WHAT!" she yelped, her fur standing on end and her tail standing straight out. She swung about and turned the gun up full. She then used a less-than-delicate burst to remove the top layer of brush and cover.

"Vaporizing it is better than burning it, yes," Foley agreed, not wishing to get on her bad side while she had his gun.

Kinza looked down the hill towards the thicket as they were heading for the temporary blind, his ears ringing from the sound of the gun firing. "Oh goodie, she has his gun now!"

"I trained her myself on how to use one," North said as he opened the cloaked shelter that was hidden under a large stone at the base of the hill. "She'll be fine."

"But what about Foley?" Dickinson asked.

North looked over at the thicket as another shot rang out followed by a waft of steam and smoke. The cold wind was picking up as March was indeed roaring like a lion now. "Remind him to get Nightwatch up into the corral, will you?" he said as he entered the blind.

"Yes sir," he said.

"M'am," Foley started as he watched Shadow get deeper into the hole she had created in the thicket, "I've got to take Nightwatch up to the corral before they get here."

He watched as her tail would flick and spin relaying the struggle she was having with the thick growth and junk that was keeping the ring just out of reach. "Go ahead," she yelled. "I'll be only a few more minutes."

Foley swallowed and shook his head. He then patted Nightwatch on the side and gestured for him to get a move on. The Cheverian snorted and looked down on his partner then turned to trot up to the paddock area and his new partner, a chestnut filly that was always eying him. He sneezed and grunted.

"I'll see you up there," he whinnied to Shadow.

"Okay, see ya!" she replied from under the brush.

Silence filled the thicket. Shadow could only hear the sound of her own body breaking branches and twigs to get down at the ring. The rustling of the wind in the branches and a slight trickle caused by the creek only made her more determined to get at the ring – it was important to her. But it seemed to have a will of its own, as it would skip ever so slightly away just becoming out of reach again each time she'd make the room to get closer. Now even the pistol was getting in the way. She had to untangle it a few times. It was beginning to infuriate her. She finally slipped it out and tossed it away. One final lunge would get the ring.

It finally slipped onto her finger. She examined it as it shown in contrast to her gray fur. She smiled and contemplated the idea of one of her own one day then smacked her head to regain reality. "Yea, right," she grinned to herself. "Time to get this back to the pantry!"

She attempted to back out, but now found herself snagged in the branches. She huffed and grunted as the anger of the situation built up inside her.

Wood shrapnel flew skywards as she furiously swiped the thicket away from herself using her razor sharp claws. She finally stood panting, looking as if she had just been cutting wood for the stove, the little chips clinging to her fur and uniform. She found the gun and slapped it to her side, then ran for the cabin.

"Final transmat cleanup of the dwelling is underway," Foley heard Dickinson report as he entered the blind. "Removal of footprints and anything deemed too out of place now completed."

"What about Shadsie?" Foley asked. "Ya know she should be heading up there about now."

"She is," North noted as he checked the monitors. "She knows protocol. She'll probably try the pantry's window."

"Hurry," Nightwatch snorted as Shadow ran past. "I can start hearing their approach!"

Shadow had to agree – ever since half way up the hill, a shrill sound has piercing her ears more than the now bitter cold wind that was rolling over the grassy fields. She shook her head as she dug the little red tag out of her pocket that she had originally had tied to the ring. She sat down on a wooden crate next to the window and pulled on the ring – which now wouldn't budge.

"Ooooohph!" she cursed as she struggled with her fur, finger and ring.

"Now settle child," Nightwatch advised. "Calm yourself, and you'll get it done."

The Cheverian was right – he always was, the pest. She closed her eyes and let her nerves stop commanding her mind. She looked to her left and saw the rain barrel. She stepped over to it and stuck her hand into its chilly water. The cat inside her shrieked.

But the ring slipped off as the finger contracted in the cold. She quickly retied it to the tag and returned to the window.

As she slipped in, the shrill was now to a low drawn out scream, and it was coming from the opposite wall from the pantry. She quickly threw open the small set of drawers and placed the object where it belonged, and where she knew Millie would find it.

"The signal's gone blue!" Kinza yelped.

There was a hard thump in the closet beside Shadow. The scream had stopped. She held her breath and dropped down in a near panic as she heard a man say "Ow… damn that smarts!"

"Damn! They're here!" She told herself. She looked at the window – it seemed a mile away now. She knew she'd have to get out through it then close it without them hearing it.

"Where the hell are we?" she heard the man continued. "What's this?"

The thin cedar planking that made up the wall was rattling from having two large adults crammed into the closet bouncing off it. Shadow crept towards the opening, waiting her chance.

"What the hell are we doing in this closet?" he asked. She heard the sound of a match being struck.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" he barked.

"There's no need to burn the house down!" Millie barked back. Shadow caught herself trying not to giggle at the Insurance Girl's jibe at Wolfwood's apparent incompetence at using a match in a closet full of clothing!

Then came Shadow's chance – she knew they were suppose to fall out of the closet – the History Readers had told them that. She climbed out and readied the window.

There it was! The pair was crashing to the floor. Just as she went to slide the window shut, she had not expected the force of those two hitting the purposefully shabby constructed floor to shake the building so. The window slammed shut, sending Shadow backwards into the grass. Even the chickens in the coop behind the cabin squawked at the sudden thump.

"Man!" she could hear Wolfwood complain. "You sure don't do things lightly, do you?"

Shadow ran over to her horse and hugged him one last time.

"Good luck," she told him.

He snorted. "Dealing with that idiot, this should be interesting," he grunted.

Shadow smiled and stroked the long white forehead diamond he had in this form. "Teach him as you taught me," she reminded him.

"Once an idiot, always an idiot," the Cheverian said using his horse sense. "At least its noble idiocy…"

"Wait until Christmas 1905," she kidded him. "I hear it's supposed to be a hoot!"

"Swell…" he mumbled. "You'd better vamoose."

Shadsie kissed him on the diamond and started for the bottom of the hill and the blind. But as she passed the corner of the cabin, she heard Millie wailing "My father is gonna KILL me! Having a child out of wedlock! Mommy is gonna SKIN me! Why did you have to die!? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE!?"

Maybe it was simply the curiosity of her feline self, or even her human side telling her to look, but she peeked in on the window.

Kinza was having kittens below. North raised his hand to calm him.

"She is doing as history requires," he told him. The Tomassamassa stared at him.

"You know what's supposed to happen?" he yelled.

North glanced at him while studying the monitor. "It's a pain, isn't it? I was informed by the History Readers just prior to arriving this morning. Shadsie's next move will be necessary to draw them outside and realize they aren't on Gunsmoke anymore…"

Shadow cursed the dirty shape the glass was in now. She took her wet thumb and cleaned a small spot in the lower corner and stared in with one eye. She had to shield her vision since the sun was behind her and glaring the view.

But there they were finally… Nicholas D. Wolfwood and Millie Thompson, standing in the middle of the cabin they had built, standing over many of the clothes she had picked out for them. She smiled.

"But… But I saw you…" she heard Millie cry. "I saw Mr. Vash bury you."

Wolfwood stood upright. "Vash buried me?" he whispered to himself. Shadow moved down, as she could have sworn he had looked at her. When she peeked in again, she saw that he was still holding Millie as she sobbed against his chest.

"Hey… Heeey," the preacher cooed to his lady. He lifted her chin with his hand and looked at her big wet blue eyes. "Hey, I'm here now. I have no idea what's going on, but I'm here… wherever the hell 'here' is."

Shadow felt now would be a good time to head for the blind – she'd get an earful from them for her little bit of peeping-thomasing, but it was worth it to see they arrived safely.

What she hadn't noticed was the fact that she had released a catch that held the storm shutter open. The wind caught it and slammed it against the building. She crouched down, her ears plastered to her head. She moved closer to the building so she could hear the response and judge any action she needed to do.

She heard footsteps. From the sounds of the heals on wood, it must have been Wolfwood. He stepped to the rear. She heard the pantry door open. She heard him grunt. She could hear Millie's little steps shuffle about – interesting for such a large woman. Then she heard what she didn't want to hear – Wolfwood was stepping towards the front door. She quickly looked about and saw a large stone below her. She leapt most of the way and landed next to it, sliding behind it and peeking up at the man who was having his face blasted by the Oklahoma wind.

"Nicholas, where are we?" Millie asked as she joined him on the porch. She clung to his arm trembling.

She wasn't the only one. Shadow panted hard, the emotion of the moment dragging on her. She looked down at the valley and saw the buffalo were passing by. She saw Wolfwood looking at them. She clung to the stone, hoping his legendary sight didn't catch any of her movements.

Suddenly she knew how that idiot Indian felt when he knew he was being in danger of being spotted. Damn she hated that paradox!

She saw Wolfwood look back at the cabin and move back in. Millie followed.

Now! She jumped up and ran for all she was worth for the blind. She slid behind the stone and looked up the hill at the cabin and saw Wolfwood was back out on the porch. Had he seen her?

"Damn! We're on Earth!" she heard over the monitors of the blind. She peeked in and saw North and Kinza looking at her.

"Having fun yet?" North asked with a smile.

She stood up, the way he had said that meant…

"You… YOU KNEW!?" she yelped with an accusing finger shaking at North and Kinza.

Foley and Dickinson were hushing her. She threw them an angry glare that hushed them as well.

"All is going as planned," North reported to them all as he took her pointing hand in his and smiled at her. "Well done." He looked back at the others. "The blind is to be abandoned within twenty-four hours gentlemen. After that, we must give them their independence."

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

Kinza coughed slightly. He looked beside him and saw his sister-in-law standing there.

"Time to change the sheets, ea?" he whispered to her.

"And take your medicines," she replied. Kinza stuck his tongue out.

"Nasty stuff… If it weren't for you, I'd not take that sludge," he grimaced.

"May we assist you?" Puruu asked Koni. She smiled and nodded.

"Of course my dear," she replied. "Lifting him up to switch the bed sheets can be troublesome."

"Will this do?" Puruu asked as she crossed her arms and knitted her brow. Kinza was lifted off the mattress and held above it in a telekinetic levitation.

"Show off," Xuru grunted as she took the pillow off the bed and helped Koni swap the wet linens for dry fresh ones. Lotha stood at the doorway with the new sheets in awe of what he was seeing. He had been there ready to help move his brother, not expecting the visitors to be such help.

"I take it," Xuru asked as she fluffed up the pillow and spun it over to the fresher side, "that there is a relationship between this Robert North and this Shadow?"

Kinza snorted from his airy position. "Professor North and his Lady Shadowcat, yes I'd say there's a relationship there. It's been a long one, considering what they've been through together. But you'll see soon enough."

Puruu gently put her sick friend down on the clean mattress and drew in a breath. "We will she asked."

Kinza laughed. "Come now, it's rather obvious I knew you from future encounters. You'll meet them as well. Trust me, you and Shadow will become fast friends – both of you."

"Medication time," Ariel said as she wheeled a cart in around Lotha's stare.

"Yuck," Kinza snorted. He looked about at those with him and then laughed.

"What is it?" Koni asked.

He laughed a bit harder. "I'm being tended to by two Queens, a Goddess and a Demon… I must be in Bahdom's Gate!"

Xuru looked at Puruu. "Bahdom's Gate?" she asked.

"Heaven," she smirked as she readied to administer some salve to the raw arms and legs of their friend.

Xuru blew some air and grinned. "Try Hell first. It's not as bad as you'd think."

Kinza laughed until he hurt, which didn't take much. "If it's anything like being in Philadelphia with a burst water main in a small back street, then I think I can handle it!"

"Oh, you've been there?" Xuru asked.

"What, Philly?"

She smirked. "No silly, Hell…"

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**A sense of loss **_

A sense of gain

As chief of security, it is your duty to see to it that history is upheld

See to it that the losses and gains are kept within the required tolerances

You are not allowed one error

Not one

Next Episode of T:MC – The Oklahoma Years – Chapter Four – Interview with Kinza Part 2 – Family

Errors cost the future

Even if it breaks your heart

**¤ ****See Team Rocket's Haunted Hayride – After Chronicles: The RPG**

_**Special thanks to:  
The USGS for their satellite photographs and research materials  
Oklahoma**_ _**Climatological Survey**_

Robert North, Tolefson, Dickinson, Foley, Puruu, Xuru, Nightwatch (Diamond Mane), The Observers, Heswald Nepto (Mr. Gizmo), Koni, Lotha Farley, Kinza Farley, Ariel, Mother, GCS Pegasus, UNS Forrestal, UNS Exeter, SAM System ©2004 DMS – Used with Permission  
The Stratus League, Golden R ©2004 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission  
Burnside, Shadowcat (Shadow, Shadsie), N'ya ©2004 S. Nordwall – Used with Permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2004 Yasuhiro Nightow  
All characters from TRIGUN: MOON CHILD ©2004 The MOON CHILD Project/DMS – Used with Permission

©2004 The MOON CHILD Project II/Denivan Media Services


	4. Int with Kinza ¤ P2 ¤ Family

TRIGUN: MOON CHILD  
**THE OKLAHOMA** **YEARS  
**Based on "Distant Lives" (FFN #3519328/9) from Trigun: Moon Child

**Chapter Four**

**Interview with Kinza  
Part Two**

**Family  
**By R. A. Stott

Edited by TiredGamer

Sections of this story based on The Lugia Chronicles, After Chronicles: Year of the Cat & After Chronicles: The RPG

She had dozed off in the lotus position. The meditation had been rather powerful this time, for she felt the need to cleanse her soul deeper than before.

But sleeping that way meant for some sore hips and knees in the morning.

"Puruu… Puruu… Wake up!"

She groggily looked up at the nothing that greeted her. She attempted to raise her hand which had been lying in her lap. It buzzed as she did so and slapped herself in the face with the numb limb.

"Puruu!"

She looked over at the voice and hand that was shaking her. "Sempai? What is it?" she asked her teacher/guardian.

"Puruu, there's a special mission you're needed for…"

The Goddess-in-Training blinked and stared blearily at her vocational officer. "Huh?"

It had only taken her a few moments to drop down to the dimensional level where the starship Pegasus was berthed. It was the middle of the night in the capitol city of Pola-Lortos V, but all the lights were on when she materialized on the ship's bridge.

"He's been calling for you," the android captain said from his command seat. He never looked up at her. He just stared at the deck-plates before himself.

"Then I should get Xuru…" she started then saw him raise his hand up.

"Just you… he insisted…" Nepto said. "Something about a thing only you can do for him now."

Puruu clutched her chest. She and her partner in the school report, Xuru the Junior Demon, had stayed in the past to finish their interview with the Tomassamassian Kinza, so to her, things were happening in 'real' time. She pensively looked at the doorway leading to the hallway back to his room and slowly stepped towards it.

"Miss Puruu?" Nepto asked.

She stopped. "Y-yes?" she replied.

The android continued to stare ahead of himself. "I want to thank you. You and your friend… you've made the last few days much easier for him. I appreciate that very much."

Puruu gave him a slight smile, though he never saw it. But he heard it in her voice.

"It was our pleasure sir," she said. "We are eternally grateful for your hospitality over these last few days…"

She looked back and saw the android nod. She could have sworn she saw him heave a sob.

"Go to him… he needs you now," he said.

Puruu continued towards the back. The ship's lights had dimmed in the rear to mimic the darkness outside the hull, as was the custom of starships as to keep the crew's livelihood more like their home-world's own. But right now, it felt too dark.

As she approached his quarters, she heard voices from behind the door. She moved her clutched hands to her face as she heard a plaintive cry from the room – one she never would have expected.

"Not like this… I didn't want to die like this," she heard a whimpering cry from there, and it tore threw her. "This is unfair… we are warriors… we do not die in a feeble pool of ourselves… oh I hate this…" She could hear that the voice broke into tears and it drew her in to join him.

"Shhh, Kinza, don't press yourself," a deep male voice said. "I'm sure she'll be here shortly."

Puruu wiped her face and lightly tapped on the door. It slid silently aside.

"Ah, you must be Puruu," the voice said. She looked over at the bed and saw a tall dark-skinned human male standing beside it in a uniform similar to that she had seen Kinza wearing before. In the room as dimly lit as this one, she nearly could only see the whites of his eyes. He walked over to her and shook her hand.

"Hank Josephs, Alman of the GCS Hydron," he told her. "Pleased to meet you. He's been desperate to see you for some time now."

Puruu looked over at her friend in the bed. He was looking straight at her, tears rolling down his cheeks. The bed sheets were missing, as if he had thrown them off.

"Why?" she asked the man. She saw him lightly smile and look back at Kinza.

"You'll have to ask him," he said. "As usual, he's being a stubborn Tomassamassa." He sighed and looked back at the young Goddess. "Personally, I can see why he wants to be alone with you. I'm sure you're better company than I am."

She blushed slightly, if anyone could have seen it in the darkened room. He guided her to the side of the bed and nodded to Kinza.

"You be good to her," he told him. "I'll just wait outside," he added to her.

The door slid shut. Puruu looked at the projection of the outside still being shown on the curved roof and wall of the opposite side of the room. It was raining outside, and it was making it ever drearier in there.

"Please," Kinza rasped, "sit… there isn't much time left…"

Puruu's heart leapt for her throat. This was wrong if it was true. She had scheduled her visit to the Tomassamassa to give him a week's rest after the interviews were to be completed. She stood petrified at the miscalculation.

She then heard Kinza snort. She looked down and saw a smile briefly on his wet broken lips. "I know what you're thinking… yea, you're right…"

"I – I am?" she queried.

He lightly rocked his head. "You thought you'd get here with time to spare… But you followed the information in the Federation Data Banks – they were a week off you told me…" He coughed a wet and unnervingly gagging hack. Puruu looked around and held her left hand over his chest and concentrated. An energy field covered her right hand as she created a gentle healing orb in it. As she held it out though, she found her hand being taken by his rough and blistered paw which popped it like a balloon. She saw him looking at her through streaky moist eyes.

"No… you're not allowed to do that," he said. "This might be the most undignified death a warrior species can have, but let me have it unfettered, please?"

Puruu gasped and placed her other hand on top of Kinza's paw. "Why have you asked me here then?"

He closed his eyes and smiled. "Well, I would have asked for Rob North to come, but he's not really a preacher… At least not in this time-line… And I needed someone with your father's ear…"

"What?" she asked, fearful of what he was meaning.

He opened his eyes, a tear rolling down his scarred face. "I want to give you my confession… if you'd do me the favor…"

She swallowed, shocked at the request. She reached over and pulled up Xuru's chair and sat down. She stared at him briefly, the thought that he would have to confess anything stunning her. She shook her head and began to pray. A pair of white wings sprang from her back scattering a few glowing feathers about. She then reached over and took his paw again.

He smiled and looked at the ceiling. "Bless me," he whispered, "for I have sinned…" Those words alone caused her to wince, her wings twitching as she made contact with her home.

Time seemed to hold still to the Goddess-in-Training. It had been less than an Earth week since they had started the sessions with Kinza - Now suddenly this. Had he known? Wasn't that against the rules of the Observer Corps? The last few days rushed by her mind in a blur as she searched for an answer in her friend's comments.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

The second day of interviews came with Kinza showing signs of improvement. She and Xuru had returned ready for new stories. Having been told of how the first homestead was built, the theme had moved on to how his crew and those on near-permanent station kept watchful eye on the new family. He recounted the first child's birth as he watched from high above in his Scat Back, the little fighter craft that he so enjoyed using – he always had to apologize to the second in command of Forrestal for any damages inflicted on his borrowed craft. He laughed.

He remembered the second child's birth as being almost as much trouble as the first one had been.

**-------------------------------------**

November 1896 was typically cold for the plains of Oklahoma. The summer and fall had run by quickly on the homesteads. The new houses were nearly completed, having been donated by the folks of the Federation & Observers Group to the two families that had settled that area. Kinza thought his job was to watch over the Saverems, but found that after Meryl was born he had a second family to keep tabs on – the Murrahs. After the incident of their children's dual births Wolfwood insisted on larger homes for both of them. Since it was beneficial to both families, North had seen to it that a pair of house kits would be available to them – only THEY would have to assemble them on their own.

Ed Murrah was finishing the back wall to the kitchen of the Saverem's home that day. They worked on an every-other-day shift, working on one house one day, the other the next. Wolfwood had added the foundation layout of the church to his plans, so he was outside taking care of that project, which meant the disassembling of the cabin they had spent the first year in. It also meant that the work on the Murrah's home was further along and just about complete. In fact, Melissa Murrah was still back at the home finishing the painting of the bedrooms while keeping an eye on their baby son Jeb.

Millie sat for a moment on the steps of her home having just hauled a load of scraps out to be tossed into their growing pile of junk which all farms had at the time. She had sorted it though. Ed was always surprised when he'd see their rubbish pile and see that it was almost as neat as the house.

"You never know when you need to recycle something," she gleefully would tell him. He'd scratch his head, having never heard the word 'recycle' before – he thought it was some sort of special bicycle or something.

She caught her breath and looked at the pile of stuff in the canvas bag she had been dragging. The wood scraps were going into a scuttle bucket next to the door – no sense wasting good burning stock – the broken glass and nails were trash, but they had their places in the Millie Dump. Then there was the plaster mess. Baby Meryl had found the white muck extremely fun to play with – it had taken some time to scrape it off the floors. Large chunks of it were making the bag heavy that day. She rubbed her enlarged belly. The child she was carrying wasn't enjoying the exercise that afternoon.

The American Express wagon started up the drive from the main trail. The driver scratched his arm where his jacket rubbed the skin. He made a clicking sound and the mule pulling his cart started up the hill.

"Hey Ed," Nicholas called. "Got something good for us?"

Ed Murrah stuck his head out of the kitchen window and looked around at why someone had called his name. "What?" he asked.

"No - no," Nick laughed. "The OTHER Ed," he said pointing at the wagon driver who had just arrived with a large box in his buckboard.

"Ea, Tess here will be happy ta see this thing out of here, Reverend," Ed the American Express driver said as he patted his mule on the rump. "I t'ink yer bell has arrived." The small stocky man got down from the driver's seat and opened the gate to the rear. He jumped up and slid the heavy crate back to the rear.

Ed Murrah had come out to look at the delivery. "Well that makes sense," he laughed.

Wolfwood smiled and scratched his head. "Yea," he said. "Figures I'd get my bell before I'd get my church!"

Ed the driver snorted a laugh. "Yea, figures… where do yas want dis?"

Nick looked about. "I guess in the stock shed," he said gesturing over to a cobbled together shack that had been made up of some of the cabin's components.

"Here, I'll give you a hand," Ed Murrah said as he came around and took one side of the case. Wolfwood got the other as the driver slid the box just over the edge of the cart, jumped down and grabbed it along the sides. They heaved it up and started to haul it over towards the shed.

"Kinza," Ed the driver heard in his ear. "Kinza, do you read?"

"Frack," he grumbled under his breath. Fortunately, the other two were grumbling as well as the bell and case weighed a ton!

"Kinza, find Millie, fast!"

He looked around with a start. They had that crate to handle. Now he had an emergency to deal with too?

"Hey Reverend, where's yer wife?" he asked as they struggled with the bell.

"Somewhere over by her trash heap, I think," he said through the strain. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Nuthin' – I just thought I heard somethin'"

"Huh?" the preacher asked and stopped in his tracks. They listened hard.

"Nicholas!" could barely be heard from behind the house. The bell was quickly put down.

Millie was on the ground, the bag of rubbish beside her. She was panting hard and was staring at the sky. "NICHOLAS!" she screamed as a third contraction struck her.

"Whoa, honey!" he yelped as he came over the rise. "Honey, what happened?"

She grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and gritted her teeth. "THE BABY IS WHAT HAPPENED," she howled through contraction number four.

"Wow, they're coming fast!" Ed the driver said much to the surprise of Wolfwood, though he was having his world shaken like one of Baby Meryl's tin rattles. He managed to look over at his neighbor before the next strike.

"Get my buckboard and horses ready, will you?" he asked then the world went blurry again.

"YARRRRGH!" Millie yelled and flung her husband away. She wasn't being as easy to handle as she was with Meryl. This baby was fighting.

Ed Murrah was heading up to the stable area. Wolfwood was on his back looking at the cold November blue sky above them. He reached into his jacket pocket then thought better of it, seeing they weren't alone.

"No need," the American Express driver said to him as he helped him up and tapping his chest where the communicator was. "We're already here."

Wolfwood looked at him. "You're an Observer?" he asked the man he knew as Ed the diver.

Kinza laughed from behind his cloak of a human body. "Heck, I've got Doc McManus shouting in my ear right now," he whispered.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

Xuru smiled. "How often had you played this Ed character?" she asked.

Kinza glanced at the ceiling of his room and counted off. "Humm," he rasped, "it must have been at least ten or twelve times. I wasn't the only 'Ed' used. A fellow crewmember, Frean Lar, who happens to be around my size, was 'Ed' also."

Puruu sat back. "Why didn't you do it all the time?" she asked. "Weren't you worried that they'd notice a difference?"

Kinza rocked his head. "The system they used allowed for multiple people to play the parts… It cloaked not only their bodies, but their voices and mannerisms. One 'Ed' looked exactly like the other 'Ed'. Remember, I wasn't always posted with the Saverems… there were many other missions to do as well, so I wasn't there all the time. Frean hated doing that job though."

"Why was that?" his sister-in-law Koni asked as she was listening in that day. Then it dawned on her. "Oh, yes, I could see why it would…"

"Well I can't," Xuru snorted. "Why would this Frean not like doing the Ed part?"

Kinza snorted a painful laugh. "Frean had an enormous furry tail! He would have to tie it up around himself before putting on the cloak. Hated it… hehehe…"

Xuru grabbed her own thin tail and shuddered. "No one touches the tail!" she snapped as she petted it.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

Ed Murrah came thundering over the hill with the buckboard. Kinza raised his hand to Nightwatch to manage of the situation, as the over-exuberant man was only barely in control, and he didn't want to get run over. The Cheverian bumped Betsy and slowed them down. He then glanced back at the human in the driver's seat.

"Idiot," he snorted.

Kinza peeked in over the sides of the wagon – there was still building stock in the back. "Aw, what a mess… let's get this out, pronto!"

"It's too late for that," barked in his ear. "Get her down here!" McManus yelped.

Kinza looked over at Millie. She was grunting and panting now.

"Frack frack frack!" he mumbled. "Ed, go up to the house and get me some blankets and towels, quick!"

As he ran off, Kinza looked down on his patient, as was her husband.

"Doc McManus is down at the Laverne Settlement," he told them.

"How are we going to get her up there?" Nicholas asked looking back and forth between the high set wagon and the ground where Millie lay.

Kinza looked at the stock in the back and pulled a sheet of Rock Maple planking out. He tested its strength and leaned over towards the Reverend.

"We're just gonna have to tap into that Gunsmoke strength you've been hiding," he quietly told him.

Wolfwood looked at him then remembered that he would have known how he used to fling his massive Cross Punisher about with ease.

But this wasn't his Cross Punisher – this was his wife!

"Quickly, before Ed comes back," Kinza urged. "Millie, I need you to roll over… you think you can do that?"

"I feel like I'll roll down the hill," she squeaked.

They placed the wide board where she had been and rolled her back. Fortunately, rock maple is a very hard and strong wood. They managed to lift her up. Wolfwood was shocked to see that the little man was having no problem raising her up - in fact, the driver looked to be stronger than the reverend! They slid her into the bed of the wagon as Ed burst through the back door of the house towards them with the requested blankets and towels.

"Great," Kinza said as he took the linens. "Now, we need you to watch over Meryl while we take Millie down to Laverne Settlement, okay?"

Ed stepped back as if he suddenly wasn't wanted. "Y-you mean… I can't come?"

"Ed," Nicholas replied, "someone has to watch over Meryl. We can't bring her along on this."

"I'll send a rider up to your place to let your wife know, okay?" Kinza offered.

The young man realized that he did have a duty – take care of his god-niece. He waved and started for the house. "Oh, okay," he stuttered. "God speed Reverend!"

"What are we doing, launching a rocket?" Kinza murmured. "Let's get going!"

Nick mounted the seat and waved. "Let's go Diamond Mane! Let's go Betsy!"

The horses began to trot down the hill. Kinza kept a watch behind them at Millie, briefly peeking out a scanning rod he had concealed in his pocket.

"Oh, those readings aren't good," he heard in his ear. "Get back there!"

"Frack," he said as he joined Millie in the bed. "Keep driving!" he barked.

Millie looked panicked at her new nursemaid. "Have you ever done this before Mr. Ed?" she nearly screamed.

"Believe it 'er not Miss Millie," he said in Ed's accented voice, "yes… many more times th'n you have I would presume… Hang on…"

He rolled up a huge blanket that had been stripped off their new bed and flung into the mix by Ed Murrah and placed it behind Millie's head to prop her up, he then took the remainder of it and wrapped it over her – she might be sweating up a storm, but in the cold November air, he didn't want her to catch pneumonia.

He looked at what he had on hand. Two standoff units, used to hold heavy objects up while working underneath them were with them. He put one of Millie's feet against one, the other foot on the other and spread them apart.

"Okay Millie, yer gonna have ta trust me here," he told her. She nodded hard. He lifted her dress up and laid down a few of the towels across the planking. He shook his head.

"Yup, yer fully dilated…" He then looked a bit curious. "When did you burst your fluid?"

Millie shrugged. "I don't know… why?"

"Because the head's already out!" he shouted. "Push! PUSH!"

They weren't even near the little creek that ran below the house when their new son was delivered by Tomassamassa.

The baby glared at him. He didn't cry, nor did he whimper. He just stared as he was quickly wrapped and handed to his mother.

"He looks eternally pissed at me," Kinza noted as he sat beside Wolfwood. He looked over and saw a simple expression on his face and the bushes getting closer on the side of the trail. He quickly spun about and grabbed the reins.

"Earth to Nicholas!" he yelped as he brought the buckboard back into the path. He looked back at the Reverend and now found him giggling to himself.

"I have a son," he was saying to himself. "I HAVE A SON!"

Kinza reached up and yanked the rim of Nicholas' hat down bringing him out of his jubilation. He gestured to the rear.

"Get back there – I'll get us to Laverne," he said. Wolfwood spun about and jumped into the bed of the wagon lying down beside his wife and their new child.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"You delivered their baby?" Puruu exclaimed.

Kinza smiled and held up his paw. "Two of them…" he said adding a two fingered victory sign. Then the smile vanished.

"What?" Xuru asked. Kinza dropped the paw on his chest with a thud, and the girls jumped, worried he had suddenly passed on. But he closed his eyes and grunted.

"Nothing," he said. "I was just remembering something…" He coughed.

He looked over at Xuru. She had taken his paw and was slowly rubbing her thumb over the bandage.

"Did the Reverend ever find you out of the Ed suit?" she asked.

Kinza stared at her. She sat up, a feeling that maybe she shouldn't have asked that question. She watched him return to looking at the ceiling.

"Err… yes…" he said as he cleared his throat. "He wasn't supposed to, though he knew I was an Observer…" He then laughed. "His reaction to my… former self… was classic."

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"Once in a while, sitting on the ridge north of the homestead was a relaxing way for the Observation crews to keep an eye on the family when maintenance was being performed on the sensors and systems used to keep tabs on them," he noted. "In the spring of 1898, a passing solar storm had scrambled the main scanner satellite over the planet, so I set up camp at our second blind area…"

The warm breeze rolled the grass up towards him as he sat with a canteen and binoculars. It was boring work, but the day it was going to take to get the unit back in service made it necessary. He sighed and poured a cup of coffee.

He watched young Meryl and David frolic around near the large tree. Millie was sitting on the porch of the house rocking their latest child Jerry back and forth in the swing they had added the week before. Nicholas was down in the lower field with his new herd of cattle, the third to be brought onto the farm and the most productive. His chapel was completed and a new large barn was starting to take shape. When it was completed, it would obscure this vantage point Kinza was enjoying. Until then, he munched on a TKL and grunted.

"Boring - boring - boring," he mumbled to himself. "When are they going to get that scanner fixed?" He rolled over and picked up a book he had put down half way through its first chapter. He glanced over at a portable scanning system beside himself and tapped it. The local scanning disks were reporting in, but the main satellite one was still out. He snorted and turned the page.

His ears twitched. He heard the scanning relay make an almost silent chirp. He then heard something nearby snap.

The book flew away as he rolled quickly over the ridge, gun drawn and ready. He looked about for whatever it was that tripped the proximity alert sensor.

Wolfwood stood over the spot that he had just been laying. He was holding the book with a puzzled look on his face, and his own gun drawn.

"HEY!" Kinza barked. "WE GAVE YOU THAT GUN TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY, NOT SHOOT YOUR PROTECTORS!"

Wolfwood looked over at the ridge at two furry ears peeking over the edge.

"DAMN!" he yelped. "What the hell are you!?"

Kinza raised his head and looked down the hill at the house. Millie was still swinging gently away and the children were still playing near the tree. Fortunately the breeze was keeping the sounds of this encounter away from the home.

"You know me as Ed," Kinza said as he sat up, keeping below the ridge-line so that if the others saw Nicholas up there they wouldn't see him as well.

"Ed?" Nicholas yelled. He then saw the strange beast trying to hush him.

"Take it easy, Nick!" Kinza was saying trying to get the ex-gunman under control. "We don't want those folks down there looking up this way!"

Nick then realized what he was doing and quickly joined the critter on the other side of the ridge. Kinza shook his head and leaned on his elbow as he slapped his gun back on his hip.

"Geeze, you'd think you'd be used to non-humans, seeing you were in Angel Wings just prior to getting here," the Tomassamassa remarked, reminding Wolfwood of the small section of the Third City of July he had saved from Vash's Angel Arm Cannon, and where a group of Observer Trainees had set up camp, many of whom were of various species other than human.

"Sorry, but you just don't have that surly human look to you," Wolfwood said as he sat back and looked Kinza over. "I mean, for Pete's sake, you don't even LOOK like Ed."

Kinza sat up and crossed his legs and cleared his throat. "Today, the part of Ed is being played by Mr. Frean Lar, a Lieutenant from the Starship Forrestal, and is currently between Laverne Settlement and the Murrah's delivering some provisions. You see, the cloaking suit can be worn by anyone, as long as they are near the size of the Ed character."

Wolfwood leaned over and pointed at the odd creature looking at him. "You mean to tell me YOU were the person who climbed into the back of my buckboard and delivered my son David?"

Kinza folded his arms and snorted. "Would you have rather I had just let him shoot out and bounce? As I said to Millie at the time, I've delivered babies before. Mind you, that was only my second human…"

Wolfwood scratched his head and looked a bit perplexed. "What are you doing delivering babies?" he wondered.

Kinza laughed. "I'm a security chief, son… I'm sometimes the first one on the spot in an emergency. And I've done my share of babies."

Wolfwood looked about holding his gun up. "A security officer?" he asked. "Why? Is there some danger about?"

Kinza shooed an insect away. "Only from these bugs and crickets!" he griped. "Na, I'm just on sentry duty while we fix our satellite. Even we Observers have breakdowns."

"All by yourself?"

Kinza looked at Wolfwood as if he had suddenly wanted a platoon around his family – circle the wagons – lock up his love ones – the lot.

"Not into your freedom yet, are you?" the security officer asked as he pulled his gun and set a dial on top of it. He then looked down the sloping hill behind them at the Kiowa Creek. "See that stone with the rock on top of it?" he asked.

Wolfwood stared at the area that Kinza had gestured to. "Ummm… you mean that one in the center of the stream?" Damn! This guy had a good eye if that was the case!

"You got it!" Kinza remarked and took aim.

"Hey! Hey! HEY! Won't they hear that?" Wolfwood yelped.

"Nope," was Kinza's only reply as he pulled the trigger and sent a small plasma bolt away. The stone was cleanly sent skipping up stream by the shot made over one hundred yards away. The only thing Wolfwood had heard had been a slight thump from the gun and the ricochet from the stone, which even Kinza was surprised about enough to peek over the edge of the hill and make sure no one suddenly needed to look up his way. Finding them happily oblivious, he settled back down.

"They're safe," he said as he placed the gun back on his hip.

Wolfwood looked down at the missing stone then back at the Tomassamassa who had shot it. He smiled and stood up.

"Well then… Sorry to have startled you," he said as he placed his own gun in the holster on his belt. He looked at the book he still had in his hand and read its title. "_Lord of the Rings?_ Ah… Fellowship…"

"You've read it?" Kinza asked as he was handed the volume.

Nicholas brushed himself off. "Only parts of it… Chapel the Evergreen had a set. I wasn't very into it. He had all of the parts with Saruman's bits highlighted."

"Freaky," Kinza said. Wolfwood noticed that by saying that, he showed his full row of cat-like canines. He shook his head.

"You be careful with that," the preacher noted as he looked over the ridge at his home. "There could be trouble if that were mistakenly found today."

Kinza laughed. "You mean just because a book that won't be published for another 60 years or so was found up here? Maybe so, but it wouldn't be the first time. Besides, Shadsie would be angry at me if I lost her copy. 'Course, the fact that the author of this book is only, what… six years old at this time… It would be a mess…" He grinned at Wolfwood, showing his teeth again and making him ponder his guard again.

"How much longer will you need to be up here?" he asked.

Kinza looked at his scanner board. "No idea – they're having trouble realigning the array. It might be another day. Don't go having another baby, okay?"

Wolfwood laughed and started to head back down towards the house as he left his family's protector behind. "Well, if anyone was to attack and he didn't have his gun, I guess he could always bite them," he surmised as the vision of those teeth kept running through his mind.

Kinza checked his scanners and sipped his cold coffee. He shivered at the shock of not finding it at least warm, so he pressed a button on the cup's rim and started heating it back up while he found his spot in the book again.

"Did you say hello to the man on the ridge?" Millie asked Wolfwood as he walked by her on the porch. He stopped in his tracks and looked up at her.

"What?" he gurgled.

Millie giggled. "I was assuming that he was one of those you said was helping us here," she noted. "You said so when we arrived!"

Wolfwood stood stupefied. He couldn't pull anything past her without her knowing! He rubbed his head. "Err, yes honey… he's just on guard duty for a few days…" Even that was more than he had really wanted to say, but obviously keeping it from his wife was damn near impossible.

"Oh, should we invite him to dinner?" she asked. Wolfwood's eyes shrunk at the thought of a cat-bear-goat-whatever man at the table.

"No – no… he's under orders… no dinner!" he quickly tripped over his tongue.

"Oh, that's a shame," she sadly said but still managed to beam it.

Wolfwood managed to step into the newly built chapel and plopped in the only pew that had been set up. The tangled mess of the rope for the bell sat waiting repair, having broke that morning while testing it. He could have used a cigarette then – blasted promise! He looked up at the steeple hole and sighed.

"I'm living in a damn fishbowl!" he harped.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

The storm of the century was what the ship's weatherman called it. The captain wasn't happy that being they had all this available history reporting, they couldn't keep that one satellite safe from solar flares and ion storms. The ship had stayed safely protected by Earth's own magnetic field, but the scanner-ship over the Saverem's homestead was directly in the path of the storm and had been splattered across the upper atmosphere.

The summer of 1909 was hot, sticky and buggy. The new blind that Kinza found himself in was near the rivers intersection that had been the hiding place the Indian had used when watching the building of the first cabin. He was also inclined to move closer to the home than normal, since this place was sometimes checked on by the children. The best place was a thicket of scrub-brush near the site of the first blind, across the road that lead past their now fifteen year old home.

He had not heard any messages from Frean/Ed about any special deliveries being made that day, but when he returned to his post after taking a slight break, he saw the American Express truck up the driveway. A few minutes later, he saw the truck turn around and head towards him. Ed shrugged at him as he passed.

"Huh," he said as he spied on what was going on up the hill. He could see Nicholas running about as if a Christmas gift had been dropped on him. Millie was just standing on the porch shaking her head, as were a number of the kids. Jerry, Dally and Christopher were with their father attacking the long crate that had been delivered, David stood with his sisters next to his mother just watching the carnage of straw and packing flying through the air.

Kinza sat amused by the histrionics and hallelujahs being uttered by the preacher. The sensors couldn't discern what it was he was opening, and Frean hadn't stayed around long enough to tell him. The massive storm raging above them in the upper atmosphere was raging all sorts of ghosts on his scanning rod, so he couldn't find out what it had been.

He snorted. It wasn't going to concern him soon anyway. He was there to keep the safety of the family, and there wasn't anyone or anything that he knew of due anytime soon.

The case was blocking his view. He shrugged and sat down in the blind and opened a book.

Now there was yelling – cursing – Nicholas ran into the barn, a storage shed, everywhere Kinza could see from his lowered seated position. He ducked down as he saw the newer smaller buckboard with Clover, their latest horse, drawing it along with a wild-eyed Wolfwood at the reins. He looked back up the hill to see Millie now looking at the contents of the crate. She only shook her head as the children giggled and danced around the box.

"Odd…" he said to himself. He turned around and sat back down as the kids were gathered away by their mother. But the cat inside him was full of curiosity. He'd peek up over the edge of his blind to see if he could get a better look at the crate, but one of the kids would inevitably be within sight of it, making it impossible for him to go up and look. He shrugged and finally settled in with "_The Chronicles of Narnia_."

It was about an hour later that he heard the horse and buggy return up the road. As it turned up the hill, Kinza could smell the pungent odor of gasoline following it. He looked up again and saw Wolfwood lifting a can off the back seat. It sloshed a bit and he cursed each drop that spilled. But he quickly brought it over to the box and started pouring it into something. He put the can down and dipped below the side of the box, hiding what he was doing to the security officer. He then popped up, a simple smile on his face, and then stepped over something that the box obscured. He seemed to sit down to Kinza's view, but he couldn't tell. He then rose up and suddenly dropped down.

It started as a putting sound followed by a sizable backfire. Wolfwood's hair was rising as was the grin on his face. Millie collected the children on the porch, a worried look on her face. The children were jumping and hollering and rooting their father on. Kinza looked back and saw Wolfwood donning a pair of goggles.

Wolfwood pulled on a handle and he leapt forwards as the Harley-Davidson Model 5D Twin Cylinder in red and gold trim flew out from behind the crate. He spun the rear wheel about and brought the bike around to face the driveway. Kinza held his breath as he watched the cycle tear down the hill at him then suddenly swerve to his right spraying him with small stones and dirt. He turned his book over to dump the gravel off it.

The thunderous rumble of the motor could be heard rolling across the valley. He looked around himself and saw the billowing cloud of the bike far off in the distance. He sat down and pondered this latest development. He pulled a small box from his belt and keyed in the details of what had just launched itself from the farm.

"History report," the box replied. "1909 Harley-Davidson Model 5D – owner Nicholas D. Saverem – history shows this vehicle is used sparingly, with little or no overall effect to the timeline… end of report."

Kinza sighed knowing what that meant – the bike was a nuisance but otherwise wasn't going to harm the future of the family. He sat back and brushed the dirt off his book and picked up where he had left off.

He suddenly had a set of wheels six feet over his head and a startled Wolfwood staring down on him as the bike leapt the small gap in the side of the road he was hiding in. He heard the cycle touch down behind him as he slowly peeked over the ridge. Wolfwood spun it about while keeping his eye on where he had just jumped. A scowl greeted him from the underbrush.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

Kinza dropped his paw on his forehead. "It still feels like I have tire marks on my forehead… Blasted humans and their mid-life crises… Tomassamassas don't have mid-life crises!"

"That was the second time you met Wolfwood in person?" Puruu asked as she wrote a note to the pad in her lap. She looked up to see him rubbing his head now.

"Umm… no… The second time… well, that time was eventful for another chance meeting…" He rubbed his nose and smiled slightly as a memory past across his face. "Ah my Lexy," he said with a wistful grin. He looked over at Puruu, who was smiling back. "What?" he asked her.

"You say that as if you had a special relationship with her," Puruu cooed.

"Oooh, Kinza had a girl friend?" Xuru giggled and prodded.

When Kinza didn't respond they all leaned forwards.

"Kinza, you didn't," Koni asked outright. He looked down at her.

"Don't be crude," he grumbled. "Lexy and I had a special relationship. After all, she was the other Saverem I delivered."

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

It was way too soon. The child wasn't due for another month they thought. Young Meryl ran about looking for towels, sheets, and help of any kind. Daddy was down at Fort Supply, and Mommy was… Mommy was…

Oh! What is a seven-year-old to do!

She remembered years ago – When her friend Jeb died… Daddy had Mommy ring the bell on the church. But it's Saturday… why would anyone ring the bell on Saturday?

"David, Jerry," she ordered, taking command of the situation, "go to the church and start pulling on the bell rope."

"But Daddy got angry at us the last time we did that," the serious looking David said. Jerry only nodded as he huddled behind his brother. He would look back at the heap on the floor behind them. Mommy was being very still, and she had made a mess of the floor. Daddy wasn't going to be happy with Mommy.

"Don't worry," she said as she forcibly guided the pair to the door out into the chilly February morning. "Just get over there and start ringing the bell! I'll take the blame if he gets angry!"

"It's cold out here," Jerry complained. He and David found their winter coats and gloves being tossed at them.

"GET GOING!" Meryl barked. She turned and looked back at the next problem to confront her. The three-year-old twins had been seated in their chairs when Mommy collapsed in front of them. Both were still in their seats. Christopher wasn't howling anymore, but Dally looked as if he were on the verge of it. Meryl looked over the situation and sighed. She slipped around her Mother on the floor and the puddle she has spilled and spun the first highchair around to remove Christopher. She did the same to Dally and shooed them to their room.

She heard the bell – one toll. It sounded like it had taken a heavy pull, as it was a clanking ring, as if the pull rope was frozen. She gave a quick glance out the frosted window of the kitchen and saw David tossing a stone at the stuck brass clapper. He was always good at pitching a baseball, and he struck home the first try. Not bad for a five year old. It swung free and clanged again.

The American Express wagon sat on the side of the trail leading northeast. A quarter mile south was the fork in the road that lead northwest. The aging Tess wasn't at all happy at standing in the frigid weather as her driver played with his equipment.

"What do you mean there's an event happening at the Saverem's?" Kinza barked into his communicator.

"An unscheduled event has occurred at the Saverem's homestead," the computer repeated to him. "History Observers are reporting an unscheduled event at o'nine hundred hours, Saturday February 8th, 1902 at the Saverem's homestead, five miles northwest of Laverne, Oklahoma Territory…"

Kinza switch channels with a grumpy snort and a "Blasted computers," retort. McManus came on.

"Thank goodness you're there," she said, her usual calm demeanor shattered.

"Abby, what is going on up there?" he asked. But before she answered, his ears twitched as the bell of the church started to waft over the rolling hills.

"Millie breeched and scanners show she's starting to hemorrhage," the doctor said. "We've got to get there now!"

"Transmat up," Kinza said, stating the obvious.

"I can't," McManus replied. "Too many folks down here at Fort Supply know I'm here… I can't risk it… it would blow our cover!"

"It'll be a moot cover if she dies!" Kinza barked back. "But you're right…"

He looked around himself. He was in the weeds – there wasn't anyone to see him.

"Look, I'm over an hour and a half away right now, so I'm going to have to transmat in," he told his com unit. "But I'll want to do this right… who's in orbit right now?"

There was a brief sound of papers rustling from his com unit. "Olympia is there now… She doesn't have a cargo transmat if that's what you were looking for…"

"She doesn't need one," Kinza said with a slight uneasy shift in his seat, "just a good engineer… Okay, I'll catch you in a few minutes. Get hold of Wolfwood - He's down there with you somewhere…" He switched channels before she could acknowledge his suggestions.

"Russell, I hope you're up there dude," Kinza yelped into the com.

"Yo, Big Ears," a cocky voice replied. "What gives dude?"

"Trouble up at the homestead, kid," he said as he blew on his paw. "Listen, I need some of that transmat wizardry you can do. Think you can beam both the wagon and me to location twelve on the Homestead Trail?"

There was a grumble and the sounds of a keyboard rattling in the background. "Oh dude, you're pushing the limits of this transmat here," the engineer said. "I would say I could take all the live items, but not all of the buckboard… at least you'd have wheels, dude."

Kinza looked back into the covered wagon. He saw his own kit of supplies at the rear and climbed back to pull them forwards. There were a few stray boxes towards the rear as well, but they were deliveries that had been rejected by the last stop. He climbed back into the driver's seat and keyed the com unit again.

"Okay Russell, if you can do it without tearing too much up, I'm ready." He reached down and patted Tess on the rump. "Hang on girl, we're going for a ride."

"Okay dude," Russell said. "Point-to-point transmats are a pain, so grit your teeth and stay frosty!"

"It's twelve degrees out here!" Kinza snapped. "Don't tell me to stay frosty!"

There wasn't a reply, just an unpleasant buzzing feeling throughout his body. Behind him the bubble system this transmat used severed the aft section of the wagon. He heard it drop off just as the tingling got its worst. It subsided and he now had the sun to his rear. He heard a flapping of cloth and looked back. Without the rear support, the canvas was whipping in the breeze. He looked at Tess. She was a veteran of many transmats, so she stood still with her eyes shut, as if she had slept through the whole move.

"How's that dude?" Kinza heard over his com unit.

He heard the bell of the church just above him on the hill. Location twelve was just behind the hill that the homestead sat on, safely out of sight of anyone, unless they were walking or riding nearby.

"Perfect," he said as he switched on his Ed suit. The winter garbed driver of the American Express Wagon appeared once again. "Let's go Tess!" he urged his mule. As they started off, he could hear the tinkling of something falling out of the back. As he turned up the drive to the house, he saw silverware dropping out from a sliced box.

"He rejected them," he shrugged and bade Tess on.

The door to the church swung open on the boys and a goggled and heavily wrapped individual looked down on them.

"YAAAAAH!" they screamed.

"Yo dudes!" Ed said. "What's with the bell ringin'? It's only Saturday!"

It took a moment for them to realize who it was at first. David settled first.

"ED!" he yelled, the serious look gone from his young face. "Mommy's sick!"

"Ed?" Kinza heard. He looked behind himself at the house and saw Meryl running towards him.

"Ed!" she cried, tears flying as she ran up to him, grabbing his hand and yanking hard. "Something's wrong with Mommy! A lot of water came out of her, and now it looks like she's bleeding!"

"Frack," Ed said and ran over to his wagon, grabbing the pouch he had moved to the front with him. He looked back at the church.

"You boys stay there and keep ringing that bell, okay?" he told them as he followed Meryl back to the house. There he found Millie in the middle of the kitchen and the twins peeking around the corner by the stairs.

"Meryl, you might want to get them out of here," he said, hoping she'd take them back to their room and leave himself alone long enough to use some of his toys. She ushered the boys back to their room as he hoped. He quickly opened his 'First Aid' kit and pulled out a hypo. A fast shot to the neck and he stabilized Millie's blood pressure which he could see was dropping fast.

"Kinza," he heard in his ear through the Ed suit's internal com unit, "remember, the baby in this case is not as important as the mother."

He continued to work. "Abby," he said, "I will pretend I didn't hear that."

"You'd better son," the voice of North came on. "Millie is more important here, not the child. I know that's harsh, but it's the fact in this situation."

Kinza cursed his com unit. "Well do you mind if I at least TRY to save the child?"

There was silence for a moment. "You have a go on that, yes," came a reply with some hesitance in it. "The child will be roughly a month premature – be ready."

Kinza nodded. "Understood," he said. He looked up and saw Meryl standing at the doorway.

"You… you were talking to yourself," she said.

Ed laughed. "Just telling my inner doctor to get his tail out here, dearie!" he said. "Don't worry – I've done this before… I brought your brother into this world a few years ago… 'course that was in the back of your buckboard!"

"You said _try_ to save the child," Meryl pressed as she came over.

Kinza/Ed sat back a moment as he considered her comment. "Meryl, I'm not going to beat around the bush… your Mother is very ill," he told her. "She could loose the baby or her own life if I don't do something quickly. Now I'm going to try to save them both, but I must have your help, okay?"

"Kinza, I have an idea," North came on in his ear. Reach up to your hat – I'm sending a new program to your Ed suit."

Meryl watched as Ed reached up to the goggled hat on his head and pulled a silvery rod up.

"What is that?" she asked with a little excitement.

Ed pointed at the silver rod. "This is an antenna for a new device the American Express Service is using – it's called a wireless telegraph. It can call all the way back to my base where I've sent for a doctor to help me. But it's finicky."

"Finicky?" she asked as she watched Ed tap his index finger against his knee as if her were keying a telegraph.

"Yes, the boys must be moving around upstairs," he said as he looked up at the ceiling. "They're interfering with the signal. Can you keep them settled up there?"

Meryl smiled and headed back up the stairs. Kinza sighed.

"North, you're a genius!" he said under his breath.

"I've been told that before," he heard. "Now get to work!"

Kinza started in on his kit of equipment and brought out his scanning rod and wound healers. He quickly sent a scan to McManus.

"You're going to have to get the baby out in a hurry," she reported back. "The lining has come out and she's bleeding internally."

"Will a wound healer be enough?" he asked back as he examined the situation.

"Just," the doctor replied. "It's all we have at this point. I can fix anything it does later, just as long as we stop that bleeding!"

Kinza snorted. He looked at the child and thought a moment. He remembered how the back of the wagon had been removed by the transmat.

"Stand by base," he keyed and then switched channels.

"Russell, be there you magician!" he prayed.

"Here, Fuzzball!" he heard in his ear. He smirked.

"Okay wizard, I've got a doozey for you this time!"

Russell felt sick. This was the ultimate transmat cycle, and it had to be done just right. Kinza was feeding him the scan readings. He needed to remove just the child, severing the umbilical and point-to-point the child into a waiting set of blankets that Kinza had set up beside them. He wiped his brow and held his breath. He plotted and graphed the settings – hopefully the child wouldn't move much.

"Listen dude, watch for shock setting in on the child," he warned. "I mean, not even born and being sent through this transmat – it would put a crimp in anyone's day!"

"Understood," Kinza said as he readied the wound healer and scanning rod. He closed his eyes and took a breath. "Great Bahdom, let me be right!" he whispered to himself. "Okay dude… let her rip!"

Russell swallowed and nodded to the ship's captain, who had come in on this delicate piece of transmat surgery. He keyed the intercom to the bridge.

"Helm, hold position for the next ten minutes," he ordered. "Negative drift."

"Aye sir," the helm replied. "Negative drift."

Russell adjusted his readings for the lack of movement in the ship. He shook his head again and held his own breath for a moment.

"Okay dude," he finally said, "here she comes!"

Kinza looked up. "She?" he asked. He was answered by a humming from inside Millie which seemed to move across the room. It settled on top of the towels he had placed beside himself. He sat shocked for a moment until the scanning rod screamed. He leaped at the work at hand.

"Did it work dude?" he heard in his ears.

"Can't tell just yet Russell – sorry, got to go! I'll let you know," Kinza replied as he quickly switched channels back to the doctor.

"Kinza? Kinza!?" McManus was shouting into the mic. He winced as he lowered the volume and returned to his work.

"Here doc," he said as he feverishly scrambled over Millie to stop the bleeding within her. "It looks like the placenta separated prematurely," he reported. "The wound healer is stopping the major flows, but it looks like the deeper ones are going to need your fine work. Sending data…"

He sat back as Millie's breathing stabilized and she moaned slightly. He placed a few of the towels under her head for her to rest on and covered her in a blanket. It was then he remembered he had another patient and looked down at the baby.

She was shivering, smaller than the last one he had delivered, but surprisingly rambunctious for a preemie. He gathered her up in his paws and stared at her. He scanned her with the rod and sent the data down the line.

McManus looked at the readouts on her from the rear of her Conestoga wagon which was moving northwest and heading for the safe transport zone now that they had called in Forrestal and her large cargo transmats. She looked up at North who had been keeping Wolfwood calm, or as calm as he could up front.

"You know, this child was not suppose to survive," she whispered to her commander.

"We don't know that," North replied. "That's why this was presented to us as it was – the history computers did not know about this event, only that it was unscheduled. I hate it when S.A.M. gets these hiccups…"

"CAN'T WE GET THIS WAGON MOVING ANY FASTER!?" Wolfwood shouted for the fifth time.

Kinza opened up the jacket of the Ed suit and held the preemie within to keep her warm. He gently rocked back and forth to keep her settled.

"Ed?" he heard.

He looked over and saw Millie looking at him.

"Are you okay Ed?" she asked with a feeble voice. "You look like you hurt yourself."

"No m'am," he said quietly to her. "Just keeping someone warm here."

"What happened Ed?" she asked, finally noticing she was on the ground. "Oh… I don't feel well…"

"Now don't you move," he told her as he slid over to her side. "You've had a little accident. I want you to lie still. Help is on the way."

"Oooh," she groggily said. "What sort of accident?"

He opened his jacket up to show her the new child he held within. "This accident," he said. He saw she was trying to raise her hand but the strength wasn't there, so he lifted it for her and rested it in his jacket so she could touch the frail skin of her newborn daughter. He looked up and saw Meryl peering around the corner of the stairs. He gestured for her to come closer.

"Meryl," he whispered, "tell the boys to stop bangin' on that bell, will ya?" Ed asked.

"Will Mommy be okay Mr. Ed?" she asked.

"I'll be fine," Millie said as she stared at her daughter in the jacket. "Mr. Ed knows how to take care of us, right Mr. Ed?"

Kinza felt a bit uneasy about the way she said that. Almost as if she knew he had been watching over them.

"Hurry," he told Meryl. "They're givin' me a headache!"

She smiled and headed for the door. She barely got past it when her father and a neighbor came charging in. Pastor North and Doctor McManus were close behind.

"Where is she!?" Nicholas was yelling. "Where's the baby!? Ki… er ED!"

"Hi honey," Millie quietly said to her husband. "Look, we had a little girl…"

The Reverend fell to his knees as he saw the condition of his wife and the friend who had come to her rescue. Kinza gave him a small salute as he opened the jacket further to let a nurse that had come with them remove the baby. McManus then moved him to the side to get access to Millie.

"Very nicely done, Mr. Ed," the doctor noted as she examined his handy-work. "You should consider a career change."

With the baby removed, he fell back on his tail. "No thanks… These house calls are murder!"

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"Heh… she wanted to name her after me… or Ed…" Kinza snickered. "But Edwina… yuck! She then wanted to try my middle name…"

Xuru raised her head off the edge of the bed. "They gave Ed a middle name?"

Kinza coughed. "Ha, they gave the Ed character a whole life background. Edward Zachary Olefchefski… Polish immigrant son born in Philadelphia… and no, we didn't use Zachary… I thought of an old friend of mine… his name was Alex…"

"Alexandria?" Puruu asked as she leafed through her notes. "Somehow that doesn't sound right…"

Kinza shook his head. "Millie couldn't get the name straight, so we took a shorter version, at least to her… Alexis… Alexis Victoria, better known as Lexy." He laughed a hurtful chuckle. "Lexy the Torpedo… she was certainly a pistol. And she was always getting into mischief…"

**-------------------------------------**

Now Puruu sat beside Kinza, her wings slowly moving with the pulse of the cosmos as she prepared to take her friend's confession.

Kinza swallowed. "Where to begin…" he said as he fidgeted in the bed. "My sin… my sin deals with Lexy…"

Puruu nodded, the name rolling through her to the great beyond to where an immortal soul received it. She sat and waited to hear more.

"It was my duty to protect the Saverem family from any harm that might befall it within the jurisdiction of the Observer's Reports on the history of the family as a whole. That means, the person known as Alexis Victoria Saverem was not supposed to have lived. My intervention when I did kept her alive."

"But that is not a sin, Kinza," Puruu noted.

"No… not at least to me it isn't… wasn't," he said as he rocked his head. "But, the fact that she wasn't supposed to have lived means that there is an extra soul in Bahdom's Gate by now… Of all the Saverems, she was the most alive… she wasn't supposed to have been there, so she shone like a beacon, blessed little child…"

Puruu noticed that the Tomassamassa was now crying. Not a small trickle, but a pained flowing flood of tears. He found it hard to catch his breath until he found his paw being taken by Puruu's gentle hand.

"I'm here Kinza," she said, but not in a voice he had expected. He looked at her with a touch of shock.

"That… that voice… Lexy…" he said through his streaked face. He reached up but found he couldn't lift himself, so Puruu leaned over to let him hold her and her visiting soul.

"It's okay Kinza," they told him. "I'm here now, I'm with my family. We all owe you more than we can ever repay… Kinza, my little Mr. Fuzzy…"

Kinza closed his eyes and pushed Puruu back. He coughed.

"Kinza?" they asked.

"Puruu, please…" he said. "I must… give my confession… I thank you for bringing her here, but please… if she wishes to stay, I must be… unhindered…"

Puruu nodded and returned to her seat. She clasped her hands together and concentrated. She then let out a small gasp and looked startled at Kinza.

"I'm… I'm sorry, I'm new at this… she refuses to leave…" Puruu said with a trickle running down her own cheek now.

Kinza scowled. "Lexy, you scoundrel! Very well, stay if you must… But be warned, you many not want to hear what I MUST confess." He lay back, exhausted from the strain. "Lexy, you're gonna be the death of me girl…"

Puruu sat upright for a moment, a look of confusion on her face. "Why does she know you as Kinza and not Ed?"

The scowl left Kinza's face as he sadly looked at the Goddess-in-Training. "Well… that was my first sin…"

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"You would have thought that after that near disaster with the birth of Alexis, that Nicholas and Millie would have had enough with having children. Well, they did – for about a year – Claire Anne made her appearance late in the year of 1904, and the second twins showed up in 1906. It was during this time while Millie was away at Fort Supply Hospital so that Doc McManus could check on her progress that things got a bit troublesome…

"Nicholas was having his hands full taking care of the kids by himself, though the VanDermiers, the new neighbors, were quite willing to help out. Trouble was the language barrier was nearly insurmountable. Young Gretchen VanDermier seemed quite taken by Nick's second oldest son Jerry, and would play with him in and around the barn constantly. David would vanish into his own world and in many cases take the twin boys with him, shoeless as usual.

So it left young Meryl in charge of dealing with the daily operations of the homestead, which was fine with Nicholas. His twelve-year-old daughter was nearly a match for everything her Mother did when it came to household and barnyard upkeep. What was beginning to worry him was that she was starting to see her share of suitors - something Wolfwood wasn't exactly ready for. His Sunday morning sermons had been interesting as of late, what with his having to deal with young hot-heads trying to court his stunningly beautiful first daughter, and also dealing with the six other children. Added to that was the running the farm and tending to the workers he boarded in the new house they constructed a half mile down the trail for their thriving cattle business.

"He had hired a cattleman named Duke Underwood, a rousing barroom fighter but generally good-hearted man, to keep an eye on the heads of beef he was raising. Meanwhile two of the VanDermier's own sons, whom Wolfwood only called Greg and Turk (since he never could pronounce their real names) ran the crops side of the expanding multitasking property. This meant that Gretchen would be there as well, since she was the only fully versed translator there for her two brothers.

"This left the last two children among the unaccounted for, and in the case of one of them who wasn't locked up in a playpen, free to roam as she pleased… and believe me, this was one free spirit…

"It began early on a June morning, as I was making a delivery at the homestead…"

The truck ground up the hill towards the church with a package from Sears and a crate from the Trenton Bible Works waiting to be delivered by AmEx. Kinza had switched on the Ed suit and was dealing with the jerky ride this 'new' form of transport gave him. The open faced Mack Van had a large curved dash and a high roof, and it churned and smoked and made some of the most wicked sounds and noises – it had anything but a silent approach. He would sometimes wish that old Tess was still pulling the wagon, but this was supposed to be progress… sure it was…

He found the Reverend laying on a pew, gurgling in sleep. He guessed the bone-rattler, as some of the other drivers were starting to call these Mack Trucks, hadn't been noisy enough to raise the exhausted preacher. He shrugged and quietly headed for the house.

"Good morning, Mr. Ed," Meryl said as she bounded out of the door. "Anything good today?"

Ed rubbed his neck and slapped the side of the Mack. "Box from Sears an' a crate of Bibles," he said. "You's seems ta have a body on yer pews back there," he added with a nod towards the chapel.

"Did father fall asleep on the pews again?" she remarked in a tone that sounded just like her mother's semi-scolding tone. "He's been working on the next sermon and getting ready for his trip to Guthrie for the Constitution Convention later on this year…"

Ed rubbed his balding head. "Looks like statehood done run him over. The convention's not 'til November, and he's already churnin' away on it?"

Meryl signed the clipboard Ed handed her for the boxes. "He takes his duty seriously, Mr. Ed," she said with a stern smile, "being the area's representative and all… Dally! Christopher! Get your shoes on and come get these packages!" She turned back to him. "I'll get father off to bed - he's been overdoing it again."

"Need any help?" Ed asked. "Looks like he's still hobblin' on that bum ankle of his."

They started over towards the church together. "That certainly was an eventful Christmas last year," she commented.

A half hour later and an eventful hauling of the tired preacher to the comfort of a mattress, Ed cranked the starter handle on the Mack and readied to take off.

"Where to now, Mr. Ed?" Meryl asked.

Ed looked back. "Just one more stop up at the Steakhouse," he said using the nickname the boarding house where the cattlemen stayed. "Got somethin' for Duke. Then I get to call it a day!"

Meryl looked at the sky. "Beautiful day to get the work done early, Mr. Ed," she noted. "Tell you what, Duke is supposed to be here in about an hour anyway – want me to take his package and you can be on your way?"

"Much obliged Miss Meryl," he said tipping his AmEx cap. He handed her a small bundle parcel which needed no signing for. He then shifted the behemoth into gear and lurched forwards, the beast churning and growling as it made the loop to exit the property. Bottom of the hill, he turned left and headed down the trail towards Laverne.

It was near noon as the truck reached the creek that crossed the path. Next to it was a large oak. Kinza was now off duty, and saw this as a perfect place to take a breather and have his lunch. He shut the Ed suit off and pulled off his shirt, since without the suit on, the internal air conditioning was off as well, and it was a bit warm. He then sat down beside the tree, making sure that a bush was there to hide behind in case someone came along the path and saw the truck. He opened his book and started to munch on a TKL.

He had dozed off halfway through the chapter. He blinked as the sun was now behind him.

"Umm…"

He held his breath. He hadn't made that sound. And something was leaning into him.

"Umm mmm… Mr. Fuzzy!"

He looked down to his left to find the scarlet mop of Lexy curled up on his furry arm. He resisted the urge to leap out of his socks at that moment. He closed his eyes and counted to ten instead.

"This is great…" he told himself as he watched the child snooze. He gingerly removed a scanning disk reader from his kit that the Ed suit sat in. He had to know when she saw him, before or after he removed the suit? He tapped on the shoulder of his shirt. His personal disk appeared. He inserted it into the reader and watched as he mindlessly stroked the girl's head with his paw.

He was safely within the range of the disk's scans – two hundred yards all around – had she stumbled across him as he dozed, or…

No, she had stowed away on the truck! She had been in the rear all along! But had she seen him remove the suit?

He spun the image around as his recorded self started to take Ed off. He moved into the truck and found Lexy playing with a dolly in the rear, oblivious that her driver was becoming a touch furrier. He looked at his belly and noticed that Dolly was sleeping there as well. He sighed and ran the playback further.

She had finally left the van. She excitedly ran up to the creek and splashed a little in the water. It was then that she turned and saw the feet from behind the bush.

Kinza looked at his legs. He was still wearing Ed's shoes and pants, though without the suit active, his fur stuck out of the cuff. He wondered if she understood the difference. He watched her tentatively check out the legs she had found.

There he was, in his glory – one giant Teddy Bear. Without hesitation, she ran right up to the slumbering bear-cat and tweaked his large oval ears. Kinza seemed to remember shooing a bug away as he napped. He shook his head. He watched the child giggle and laugh and - dance!? - around his sleeping self.

"Damn," he grumbled. "I could sleep through an earthquake," he said then looked down on the slumbering redhead, "and you would obviously play with a sleeping lion. Kiddo, what am I going to do with you?"

He pulled on his kit bag and pulled out the medi-kit. He found his sprayer of sedatives and set it for low, and gave the child a gentle sprits. She briefly woke up and smiled at the face looking down on her.

"Mr. Fuzzy," she said as she fell asleep again.

"And hopefully fuzzy is all you'll remember of this," he said as he picked her up and placed her in the back of the truck. He then donned Ed again and started the monster up.

Wolfwood lay looking at the ceiling of his bedroom. He had been satisfied sleeping on the pew. Without Millie beside him, he couldn't sleep in their bed comfortably. He finally got up and sat in a chair across from it and stewed.

Then there was a noise. Not one he had expected in 1906 Oklahoma. It was a high pitched beeping sound, and it was coming from his jacket. He pulled open the vest and found his com unit. He nearly flipped the device across the room when it beeped again in his hand. He opened it.

"Hello?" he said.

"Nick – great… Kinza here," it said.

"Hey," he nonchalantly said as he leaned on his chair. "Long time no hear… what's it been, three hours or something?"

"Yea, something," the Tomassamassa said. "Listen, we have a problem…"

Nicholas never liked that set of words, but who does? "What sort of problem?" he asked.

"Well, have you counted heads lately?"

Nicholas looked at the com with a puzzled expression. "What do you mean - my cattle?" he queried.

Kinza plunked Ed's head against the steering wheel. "No Nick, family," he grumbled. "If you did, you'd find you were short one right now, specifically a small red-headed one!"

Nicholas sat down in the chair. "Lexy? She's with you?"

"Stowed away on the truck," Kinza reported. "I never knew she was there until I took a break and she found me."

Wolfwood sat back. "Wait a minute… she found you? Don't you mean you found her?"

Kinza blew air which snorted out the Ed suit's ears. "No, she found me – worst yet, she found ME, sans Ed!"

Wolfwood slapped his forehead. "She saw you as YOU!?"

"Yea… I'm gonna need your help on this one buddy." He looked down on the sleeping child behind himself. "She's sleeping now… I need you to make her believe I'm just an imaginary friend or something."

Wolfwood stood up and started to pace the floor, wrapped ankle and all. "What if she wakes up before you get her back here?"

"She won't," he heard. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear it that way.

"What do you mean she won't?" Nick abruptly asked.

Kinza sighed – he knew what he was about to get. "I gave her a sprits of knockout spray."

Wolfwood pinched his eyes. "Yea, I guessed so… guess you had no choice…"

Kinza sat back, surprised that he hadn't just had his head handed to him then. "Yea, it was that, or have her drag me up to the other kids saying 'look what followed me home – can I keep him?'"

Wolfwood smiled at that thought. "Okay, what do you need me to do?"

"Well, I have to find a way to get her back in the house," Kinza said as he approached location twelve. "I'm almost in position now."

"Can't you just, oh what is it you Observers call it, beam her in?" the Reverend asked.

"I would, if there was someone up there to transmat her," Kinza noted with a grumble. "We don't have anyone in orbit right now."

"So what do we do then?"

Kinza looked at his scanner readout. "I need you to keep everyone to the church side of the house. Make sure your front door is unlocked, and I'll sneak her in."

Wolfwood looked out his bedroom window. Duke Underwood was coming up the path towards the church, a slight bit tipsy from what he could see.

"Give me ten minutes," he told Kinza. "Start making your way up and keep to the curve of the hill."

"Gotcha," Kinza said.

Meryl hated it when Duke would show up after a bottle of whiskey had drowned another of his sorrow filled stories. He tripped on a small stone and cursed it, then laughed at the folly of a stone bringing his large frame to his knees. He stumbled back onto his legs and continued to soldier on.

"Uh, here you go, Mr. Underwood," Meryl said as he approached her. She held the package that had been delivered earlier out so that she didn't need to smell him too closely, which was hard not to as the breeze was following him.

"Thankie Miss Meryl," he said in his very odd accent. He may have been dressed as a cowpuncher, but for some reason Meryl always thought he really belonged at sea – he had that pirate look and swagger to himself. "Ah my… Charles Scriber's Sons… looks like another rejection it does…"

Meryl took a step to one side to let the odor move east of her. "Scribner's? Isn't that a book publisher?"

"Aye, it is lassie," he said as he sat down in the middle of the path and tore open the package. He removed a soiled and tattered volume that had an attached note. He took it off the manuscript and attempted to read it.

"Ah, the type is too small for me eyes…" he grumbled then handed the paper to Meryl. "Could you tell me what this says lassie? It seems short enough… an' I forgot me readin' glasses…"

Meryl held the paper between two fingers. "To Mr. Richard Andrew Underwood," she started. "Richard Andrew?"

He cleared his throat. "Tis the name me mum gave me," he said in a way that sounded both proud and a bit pensive that he had such a title. He cleared his throat again. "Please… continue…"

"Well, there's only one line here," she said, a bit worried about the content she was reading.

"Don't worry child – let me have it – both barrels!"

Now it was Meryl's turn to clear her throat as her father hobbled up to her side. "Dear Mr. Underwood, if Harper Brothers didn't want your manuscript, what makes you think Charles Scribner's Sons would want it any more than they would?" she reported. Underwood rolled backwards as if buckshot had indeed splattered against his chest. "It's signed Jennings," she finished.

Underwood rolled back onto his legs. "Damn fool… That's their entry editor – culls out the deadwood and sends the good stuff on to the upper editors." Duke sighed and fell back into the dust, placing the tired old manuscript on his chest. "How am I gonna get me story through an ass like that?"

"Should I perform last rites now?" Wolfwood asked.

"Huh," Underwood laughed as he opened the book and spread it across his face. "Just like this," he said.

"Maybe all it needs is a bit of editing by someone who is unbiased," Wolfwood suggested. "Where did you find time to write this monster anyway?" He examined the book draped across his foreman's face – it had to be at least three hundred pages.

Duke sighed from behind the slightly yellowed manuscript. "Me late wife transcribed it for me," he moaned as it seemed that the alcohol was beginning to take its daily toll on his head. "Bless her… she had a typewriter available and did it up for me."

"It's funny – I never thought of you as a writer Duke," Wolfwood said as he reached down to pull his cattle chief up.

"Uhh, never judge a book by its cover laddie," Underwood gurgled. "I may not look it – hell, I may not even sound it, but I am educated."

"Really?" Meryl asked as she screwed up her courage and her sinuses and assisted her father lifting Duke up.

"Four years at Oxford will leave little in a man who's been to sea fifteen years and scruffin' out here for another ten," he said as he dragged the manuscript out of the dirt it had fallen to. He dusted it off, looked at it with a snort then threw it back down.

"I'm a damn fool," he growled.

Kinza had made it to the far side of the house. The boys and the VanDermiers were over at the barn. He was now hugging the back side of the chimney with his bundle and making sure they didn't see him. A quick scan showed him that the youngest, Claire, was in the room next to where he wanted to take Lexy. He slid further along the wall and peered around towards the front. He saw Nicholas, Meryl and the old farmhand down the hill. A quick look behind him made him flinch. David and Jerry were coming out of the barn with Gretchen. They'd surely see him if he didn't move now.

He ran around the rails on the porch and jumped into the shadows opposite the swing seat.

"Ea?" Underwood said. Some movement made him focus on the bleary house ahead.

"You shouldn't toss away your story, Mr. Underwood," Meryl exclaimed as she bent down to pick it up. "Do you mind if I read it?"

Duke looked up at the young girl. "You?" he asked. "How old are ya?"

Meryl looked at her father and blushed a bit. "Twelve this fall," she smiled.

Duke gave her a cockeyed look. "Tha's a heavy and dreary story of sea life, lassie… not exactly meant for young eyes like yours."

"Pish, Mr. Underwood," she said as she skipped through a few pages. "I can even edit it a bit if you wish… Father lets me clean up his sermons all the time."

Nicholas scratched the back of his head. "She's pretty good at it, I must say…" he said following it with a bellowing forced laugh. "Oh god I'm so lame," he added with a quiet whimper.

"Now daddy, don't be like that," she laughed. "We all know you try!"

Duke blearily looked between the two. "Huh? You mean to tell me you don't write your own sermons Reverend?"

"What?" Wolfwood barked. "Of course I write my own sermons!"

"Mother and I just make sure they come out sounding right!" Meryl added with a grin.

Wolfwood dropped his arms and head. Snagged again!

Kinza took that moment to open the front door. He fell backwards into the house in a tuck and roll.

"Aye, I thought so!" Duke barked as he scrambled to his feet leaving a trail of dust behind.

"What?" Nicholas yelped as he pulled himself up and saw where Underwood was heading.

"Someone just went inta yer house!" the old sea-dog in cowboy garb lumbered. Wolfwood would have chased him down, if only his foot wasn't holding him back. He followed with Meryl close behind.

Kinza made it to the bedroom and gently opened the door. He laid the child in her bed and brushed her hair out of her face. It was then he found that she had a death-grip on his furry thumb.

"Umm… Mr. Fuzzy!" she whispered in her sleep.

"Kid, you're too much, but I gotta scram!" he said as he pried his digit from her clutches. He pulled her dolly from his back pocket and quickly swapped it with his finger. He rubbed her head and sighed. The last time he had seen her up this close had been when he delivered her.

"You're a real heartbreaker kiddo," he said with a sigh. He then looked about and peeked out the window. He saw Duke heading for the front door!

"Dang!" he said as he looked about the room. The Observers Corps had set up an emergency escape route out of the house. But it wasn't in the room he was in now - it was the one next door, the one with the infant Claire in it!

"This is just not my day!" he said as he quickly surveyed his options. Claire was barely a year and a half old. If she was awake, what would she remember of a giant Teddy Bear running through her room?

"Gotta risk it!" he told himself as he heard the trio downstairs in the foyer. He opened the door between rooms and slipped in. The second child was standing in her crib. The look on her face was of sheer surprise. It quickly turned into a cry of delight that an upright kitty-bear had just entered the room!

"Oh, I don't have time for you!" he said as he headed for a panel on the wall on the opposite side of the room. He tapped on it lightly and it slid open. He replaced a large toy giraffe that he knocked aside back on its feet, gave the infant a wave of his paw and slid the panel shut.

The emergency escape was a chute tube in the wall that had been secretly installed while the building was being erected. It was located at a point where the history computers said no modifications were planned to the home and could be accessed from any level of the structure. It fed to a tunnel that lead out through the old blind at the bottom of the hill. He would have to wait until dark before leaving the stone doorway. He sat in the dark cobweb filled room with only a safety light on and his book he had brought along. But reading wasn't on his mind. He would look back up the tunnel and think of the little girl who called him Mr. Fuzzy.

It was mid afternoon when Duke finally decided that he had seen only a farm cat. One was found curled up in the rocker beside the fireplace.

"I'll get one of da boys ta get a fixin' on that door," he grumbled. "Blasted thing's too easy ta open!"

Lexy awoke with a start. She looked at her dolly, who she was still holding in her hand. She left her on the bed as she sat up and looked around the room. She looked at her hands to see if the fur had been real. She then burst into tears. Next door, like a domino, Claire joined in with her big little sister.

Down below Kinza twitched as he could have sworn he heard a crying wail. He knew just how long that spray he used worked, and guessed that it had probably worn off by then. He sighed an examined the cover to his book.

Nick sat down beside his daughter. She grabbed him and cried into his chest as he soothed her.

"He was real daddy!" she cried. "Where is he? He was real!"

Wolfwood brushed her hair. "Where is who, pun'kin?" he asked.

She looked up at him, her blue eyes ringed in red. "Mr. Fuzzy?" she blubbered.

"Mr. who?" he asked. "Honey, you came up here after breakfast. There hasn't been anyone here since then."

"But I know he was here!" she insisted. She pushed away from her father and looked around the room calling "Mr. Fuzzy! Come out Mr. Fuzzy!"

"Honey!" Nicholas called. "Pun'kin, you've been napping! I think you dreamed this Mr. Fuzzy."

She stood in the middle of her room and looked at the walls cluttered in toys, books and other items of childhood. They all now seemed insufficient. She looked back at her father and ran back into his arms.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

Kinza squeezed Puruu's hand and gulped some air. "My second sin…" he started.

Puruu held her breath. How many were there?

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"The spring of 1907 came in wet. The children and their parents were mostly cooped up over the snowy plains winter, and the rainy weather that followed just prolonged the agony longer. March had been warm, but still damp. But in late April there was finally a break and the fields around the homestead burst with a spread of flowers that was incredible. The lower fields were filled with the cattle that had made it through the rough weather with the young calves dancing through the tall grass. The smell of honeysuckle near the creek and rivers was simply wonderful. This was probably the best time I ever had during my service with the Saverems.

"I had returned to 1907 from a multi-year tour-of-duty with Forrestal, detailing the history of level 1472-Beta 12. After my near disastrous run in with Lexy the summer before, taking a time-stretched assignment was therapeutic indeed. But I missed the family. When assignments were posted and I saw that Ed was going to make his return in the spring, I jumped at it.

"There was something a bit different this time – I had a rider with me. A guy named Ross was riding out with me from the United States Postal Service with a special delivery for Duke Underwood."

"Oh my," Millie exclaimed.

"Something wrong?" Kinza/Ed asked.

"I would have thought you would have heard, Mr. Ed," Meryl said. "Duke died over the winter."

Kinza stood back a step. "Really, well I'll be damned. Well, I haven't been up these parts in almost three or four months."

"That's why Nicholas isn't here," Millie said. "He's escorting his body back to England."

"Well, that's a bummer," Kinza noted as he looked at the guy he dragged all the way out there with a package for a dead man. "Guess you'll have to return that to the sender."

"Not exactly," Ross said through his walrus mustache. "It can be signed for by… ummm… ah, Meryl Eileen Saverem?"

Meryl dropped the dish she was holding. She held her chest and looked at Russ as if he were delivering a box of plague. "Which… which one is it?" she gasped.

"Honey?" Millie asked worried over the reaction her daughter had just had. "What is it?"

"Do you mean who is it from?" Russ asked as he looked at the box. "Looks like Macmillan…"

Now Meryl grabbed the nearest chair and sat down with a thud. "The… the BOOK!" she said through her hard breathing.

"Meryl silly!" Lexy said as she dashed through the kitchen and out the back door. Kinza/Ed watched the child run out and into the fields without a care in the world.

"Just sign here," Russ said.

"Oh, would you look at that!" Millie exclaimed as she saw all the stamps on the package. "It came all the way from England!"

Meryl looked at the package and sighed. "We figured that Mr. Underwood was trying the wrong publishers for his book. After all, he was from England… I suggested that he try an English publisher."

"Well, they certainly were insistent on getting back to yas, Miss Meryl," Russ said as he brushed his finger through the droopy mustache. "I'm here because they sent it special courier. Yas don't get that much out here, do yas?"

"Go ahead and open it," her mother prodded her seeing her daughter just stare at the package. "I'm sure Duke would have wanted you to do so."

Meryl took a pair of scissors and snipped the string that held the worn waxed paper to the bundle and unwrapped it. Inside she found the manuscript Duke had let her read through and correct and found it worked over with scribbles and marks in the margins.

"Huh," Meryl said a bit shocked by what she saw before her. "The other publishers didn't do this." She then found a letter addressed to Mr. Underwood and her.

"Dear Mr. Underwood and Miss Saverem," she read aloud. "Your synopsis was quite correct. The manuscript that you submitted to us would be very much more appropriate if published here in Great Britain than there in the States as it would have greater relevance. We would like to offer you…" She covered her mouth and held the letter out. Millie looked at it and took it from her.

"We would like to offer you," Millie continued, "the possibilities of having your story published here, as we have found it exceptionally well versed and unique. Please pardon our editor's remarks on your original copy. These are what we found needed to be corrected prior to our taking this story on as our own. I strongly suggest that you find a literary agent as soon as possible as they will be able to expedite contact between our New York offices and here with greater speed than parcel post. We look forward to seeing your corrections within the next few months. Sincerely, Neville Wallingford, Senior Editor… Oh honey!"

Kinza/Ed heard a crack. Then a glass on the sink behind them started to spin. It didn't fall so it didn't draw anyone else's attention. He smiled. When he looked back Meryl had her head between her knees and was wailing away.

"Did I miss something?" he asked.

"I… I can't do this by myself!" she cried. "I can't… not without Mr. Underwood! It was his story, not mine! I need his thoughts… He knew the story… I just corrected it for readability! What am I going to do? What am I going to do?"

"Meryl silly! Meryl silly!"

The little voice had come from the doorway. Meryl looked up at the child and exploded.

"LEXY! NOT NOW! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?" she blasted the backlit silhouette of her little sister. But a larger one stepped in front of the child making her look up.

"No, she doesn't," Ed said. "She's only five years old."

Meryl's eyes grew wide as she realized what she had just done. "Lexy!" she gasped.

Kinza turned and saw the doorway empty. He stepped through and saw Lexy running towards the barn.

"I'll get her," he said as he followed after her. He tapped the back of the Ed Suit's hand and a screen appeared. This new version had a scanner built in. The barn showed clear of anyone other than a small human as all of the farmhands were out in the fields. Before he entered the structure he ran up to the edge of the corral to an old friend.

"Nightwatch, did you see Lexy," he asked. "She was running this way."

"I saw her run into the barn… I take it that loud yell was directed towards her?" the Cheverian asked.

"Not intentionally," Kinza said. "Keep an eye out for her… this scanner isn't picking her signature up well… they still have to get the bugs out…"

"Will do," he said as he trotted to the opposite side of the paddock.

Ed entered the barn and looked about. The suit had another bad fault he would have to address to the tech crews – it hindered his hearing. He looked about and shut down the field. Kinza then used his ears. He heard whimpering nearby. He moved over to the third stall in the set and found Lexy in a little ball crying.

"Hey Red, she didn't mean it," he said as he turned on the suit again. He bent down to her side and placed his paw on her back.

Paw? He lifted it up and saw his furry digits looking back at him.

"Mr. Fuzzy!" he heard and was then bowled over. Something had definitely gone wrong as she obviously was seeing him in his full furry self.

"I knew you weren't a dream!" she exclaimed. "I just knew it!"

As she pulled back, she was greeted first by the face of Mr. Fuzzy, then of Ed the AmEx delivery man. She looked at where her hand was and pressed again. Mr. Fuzzy returned.

"Great… just peachy," he grumbled. "Torpedo Kid, you found my on-off switch!"

Lexy keyed the spot a few more times until Kinza stopped her with his paw.

"Please, you'll overwork the battery!" he exclaimed. He then sat back and gave her a weary smile. "How are you doing kid?"

As she looked at him, her face changed from joy to a quivering sadness. She then burst into tears and fell into his chest.

"My big - big - big sister yelled at me!" she bellowed. "Why did she yell at me?"

"Ah, you found her," he heard before he could answer her. He looked up to see Nightwatch looking over the gate to his stall at them. "Aren't you out of uniform?"

"Shh!" Kinza hissed. "One awkward moment at a time, thank you!" He stroked the long red strands that covered the girl's head as she let her feeling out into his uniform. "Now now," he said to her. "She didn't mean it… You just caught her at a bad moment. Your sister loves you, you know that. She helped bring you into this world, you know that?"

"She… she did?" she sniffled.

"Yea," he cooed to her. "She was a real trooper, just like you." Kinza then hugged her, kissing her forehead and wiping her tears with his paw. "Now you're a big girl, right? You've got two little sisters who'll follow you now, don't you?"

She nodded as she wiped her face. "Uh huh…" she said to the deep purring voice.

"Then you know that you have to show them a good example, right?" he said as he scratched her under her chin. "You've got to take the lumps and make mashed potatoes, okay?"

"Yuck! I hate mashed p'tatars," she exclaimed with a stuck out tongue.

Kinza sat back and crossed his arms. "Well then, what do you like?"

"Celery!" she chirped.

Kinza blinked. "Celery? You gotta be kidding!"

"Yay celery! Crunch crunch crunch! Noisy celery!" She stood up and did a celery crunch dance to the amusement of both the Cheverian and the Tomassamassa.

"At least she's eating her veggies," Nightwatch said as he withdrew his head from the stall window. "Heads up!" he warned. "Family units heading your way!"

Kinza reached out and took the child in his paws and hugged her. "Listen you," he told her, "you and I go back a long way… I don't ever want to see you crying like this again, hear? You're too feisty for that."

"Feisty?" the blue-eyed child asked as Kinza rocked her back and forth.

He pointed right at her nose and said "too full of life!" She giggled. "Now then, I want you to head back to the house, okay? I'm sure there's someone who wants to say she's sorry to you. But you… you should say you were sorry too."

"Me?" she asked a bit shocked.

"You. You were teasing your sister at a very bad moment. Can you do that for me?"

She nodded and looked down. Kinza lifted her chin and planted his forehead against her head and gave her a friendly growl. She growled back. He growled back at her. She let go a mountain cat snarl.

"Kitties," Nightwatch snorted from the window, "they are waiting outside the barn looking like they need to fumigate it."

Kinza grinned. "Okay you, go show me you're a big girl, okay?"

"Okay," she smiled back and ran out of the stall.

Kinza brushed himself off and looked up at the Cheverian. "What?"

"You didn't tell her to not tell them about you," Nightwatch said.

"I didn't tell her to say that you talked either," he said as he fixed the suit and returned to Ed. "What sort of letch do you think I am? I'm not about to tell a little girl to go out there and lie for my sake."

"You put your faith in a five year old?"

Kinza/Ed snapped a look at Nightwatch that made him step back. "That's five years that little girl should not have had. She's my responsibility."

"Are you planning on being her guardian angel for the rest of her life?" Nightwatch asked as he returned to the stall window.

Kinza/Ed stood at the open stall and watched the child run into her sister's arms and roll her over. Millie was standing beside the doorway. She smiled and nodded to him.

"I can't say Nightwatch," he told his friend. "I only know that child's life and mine have become intertwined. Maybe it's fate… or just plain dumb luck… I don't know… I really just don't know."

As Ed walked out, he was grabbed by Millie who hugged him.

"Well, gee, thanks m'am," he said while in her death grip.

"I never did get the chance to thank you properly for what you did for Lexy and I," she said quietly. "Thank you."

Ed managed to tip his cap in her direction as he caught his breath. "Not a problem m'am!"

"I knew that you'd be able to settle Lexy," she continued. "You're like our guardian angel!"

He looked back at the Cheverian. He snorted and shook his head as he withdrew it from the window. He knew he was becoming just that, whether he wanted to or not.

The two delivery men climbed into the van and waved goodbye. Down the road a bit, Ed pulled Kinza's communication unit out and handed it to Russ.

"What the…" Russ asked.

"Shadsie see if you can get the frequency to transmit a signal into the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable so we can send a telegraph message to Wolfwood in England, would you?" he asked the postal agent as he kept his eyes on the road.

Russ looked at him with surprise. "How long did you know?" he asked in Shadow's voice.

"In the kitchen – you cracked your tail," he grinned. "Nearly knocked a glass over too! If you want to, climb into the back and turn that thing off… I know how much you hate these suits."

"I don't hate these suits," she said as she shut it down and climbed into the rear, "but these new ones block my hearing! Ah – got the frequency… what do you want to send him?"

He reached back and she handed him the com unit. He then set it to change his voice message to text and cleared his throat. "Pip-pip and cheerio Reverend Saverem! How would you care for a side trip while you are over there? You may want to stop by the Macmillan Publishing House to see about the story that your dear daughter and the gentleman whom is in your care sent them. Seems they quite enjoyed it but need final editing. Could you pop in on a Neville Wallingford, senior editor there, and see if there are any extra edits he may have forgotten? You will find Macmillan in Houndsmills, the Hampshires of Basingstoke. Please reply by telegram. Yours truly, Kinza… Pip-pip what-ho!" He grinned as he closed the com unit and returned it to his jacket.

"Why are you having Wolfwood check in with the editor at Macmillan?" Shadow asked as she removed the belt that controlled her suit.

"Those editors are always forgetting something after they've sent the manuscript back for final tweaking," Kinza noted as he lowered his own suit's field.

Shadow sat back and pondered the Tomassamassa. "You really care about this family, don't you?"

Kinza smirked and grunted. "Family… yea… I guess I do." He sighed. "By the way, Nightwatch says hi!"

He heard a thunk in the back. He looked to the rear and saw Shadow pounding the wall of the van.

"Blast it all!" she yelled. "With all that about the book and all, I forgot he was there!"

Kinza returned to watching the road. "Want to turn back?" he asked.

She sat down with a thud. "No… I have a feeling that telegram you sent will have me out there again real soon."

The Mack ground away down the road towards Laverne Station as the sun was dipping low to the west. What a day!

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"Lexy would shanghai me whenever I would visit and she was about," Kinza said with a weak smile on his face. "Bless her, she was a scamp… you are a scamp young lady…"

Puruu looked down. He was addressing the spirit that was within her obviously, and that soul was blushing – she could feel it. She looked up and saw Kinza's wet eyes glimmering in the dull light from the window. He was letting his emotions control himself now - it seemed all he had left.

"You may consider that my third sin – against regulations and orders, I had made contact… regular contact with someone other than the official contact with the family… even though I was pretty sure that Millie knew all along… Vash was right about her you know… she was smart. She just never really understood just how smart she really was." He sniffed as his control was wavering. Puruu gently placed her hand on his cheek.

"Please, if you need to take a break…" she said.

Kinza broke. He shattered emotionally, something Puruu had not expected, and the soul within her sat stunned over.

"Kinza… Please, Mr. Fuzzy… Don't cry…" the voice with her said aloud.

Kinza fought and regained some control. "But you don't understand…" he gasped. "You wouldn't understand… my forth and fifth sins… they are sins I can never atone for. And they were about you…"

Lexy gasped within Puruu's mind. The Goddess hushed the Tomassamassa as she added a slight claming sedative energy orb. "Please Kinza… You must settle."

He rolled his eyes, the energy he had just spent catching up with him. He swallowed as he felt the soothing energy rushing in to take the pain he was suffering down a notch. He reached up and placed his bandaged paw on her hand.

"I thank you for allowing me to regain my composure," he told her. "That will be quite enough… Allow me the dignity please… we are a warrior race after all… and this is about all the dignity this disease is allowing me…"

He drew in his breath and closed his eyes. "It was the fall of 1912 – that was when my forth sin occurred…"

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"The eleventh of twelve was on his way. This time, Millie's hormones must have been completely out of whack – this pregnancy left her an emotional wreck, and was probably the hardest one on the family since… Lexy's early arrival. Even my 'replacement' – Tom the AmEx driver – had his head handed to him by the once sweet head of the household. Eighteen year old Meryl was away with her scholarship money the publishing house of Macmillan had granted her, she was safely in Kansas City away from Mount St. Millie… But everyone else was fair game."

Wolfwood stood on the cold hill overlooking the cattle fields. "ALEXIS!" he shouted. "ALEXIS!! HONEY!!"

Nearby a shimmering light caught his attention. He rarely had seen a transmat in use – he himself had traveled through one when his daughter had been born. Two figures were there, both friends who had answered his panicked call for help.

"Rob! Kinza! Thanks for coming guys," he pleaded.

"Millie spouted off on someone?" Kinza asked hearing some epithets being hurled down at the house.

Wolfwood looked at the ground. "It's that obvious, is it?" he said while scratching the ground with his shoe and his head with his hand. "Oh, that's right, you got a dose the other day… And I guess that Abby reported in about her adventure…"

"Doc McMannus is a saint," Kinza noted. "She knows more about what's going on than any of us, and knows that Millie meant none of it."

"Yes, but why is she this way in the first place?" the Reverend asked, the slightly harried expression on his face in evidence.

North looked at a PADD device he was carrying with him. "Well it looks like this time she's not only got some hormonal imbalance, but I'd say this baby has a bit of a sweet-tooth, as her blood-sugar levels are also out of whack. It happens quite often and even more so when the mother is older."

Wolfwood had a twitch to his eyebrow and a quirky grin on his face like HIS OWN blood-sugar was out of kilter. "Are we done yet?" he asked. The way he said it was obvious to the two Observers – was there any more children coming? They simply gave him a silent look that told him volumes. He dropped his head and arms while the chilly wind brought another round of yelling wafting up the hill.

"So, what's the emergency?" Kinza asked while tapping his scanner. "Blasted ion storm is messing up our equipment."

Wolfwood suddenly remembered why he desperately had used the emergency com unit and started looking around in a panic. "It's Alexis!" he said while looking around hard.

"Lexy?" Kinza asked as he now was looking about with concern. "What's up?"

"It's a long story…" Nick started. "She and her mother got into a real shouting match this morning – I mean a real barn burner… they were face to face screaming at each other until they looked like tomatoes. It's getting so that even the cattle punchers won't come up to the house anymore… Anyway, Alexis ran out and we haven't seen her since – she's a free spirit and all, but she's never been out this long… and this time I think Millie may have gone just a bit too far…"

Kinza snapped a worried look at Nicholas. "How so?" he asked.

Wolfwood looked up at the darkening sky. "Millie had found her in the kitchen taking a break after helping me with some chores in the chapel… she must have thought that she had been loafing there all that time I guess, because she started accusing her of being a slug-a-bed… and then the name calling started…"

"Aw crap," Kinza snorted as he brought his scanner up. It was giving him some mixed signals on Lexy's location.

"Yea," Nick agreed with that one word assessment. "It got worse… Millie finally told her that she was worthless and a mistake…" He saw the shocked look the Tomassamassa was giving him. He had the horror of a parent telling very much the same thing when he had been a child. "My Millie's an angel, Mr. Kinza, you know that. She wouldn't say that or mean that…"

"All the same," Kinza said with trepidation, "we need to find her before she does something we would all regret." He looked back at North and suddenly felt a cold streak run up his spine. The look on his face worried him – as if they weren't suppose to find her… until it was too late?

"Frack… you're kidding…" he said to the sad look. He quickly took a reading and looked about. "Which way did she go?"

"No one saw, other than she was running," Nicholas said. "Normally she would hide out in the barn, but we've been all over that – she's not there." Another row came up the hill and he cringed.

"I'm getting Abby here now," North said as he pulled his com unit out and Nicholas headed down the hill for his home. "We've got to get her under control. Kinza, you start a search for Lexy."

"Right," he said as he adjusted his scanner.

"And Kinza," North added, "code two."

He stopped in his tracks and stared at the captain. "Two sir?"

"Two," he replied, making sure that Nick hadn't noticed the reaction.

Kinza walked down the hill with a puzzled look on his face. "Code two?" he mumbled. "Take my time?"

Then it dawned on him. As a captain, North had the privilege to see the history tapes that told everyone how to proceed with certain events. So he… must have known…

"Lexy!" he said to himself and took off running towards one of the faint signals. "Damn you North… you knew… you're getting Abby because you know that she's going to be needed to keep Millie calm! Frack! Lexy! Where are you?"

The upper atmosphere storm wasn't helping any. The signal his scanner gave him was faint or scattered – a dozen Lexys would appear then vanish. He finally slapped the unit shut and did what came natural to him and his species. He sniffed the cold air.

Tomassamassas are one of the galaxy's best navigators some say because they can smell their way from one point to another. He knew her scent from the day she was born. It took him only a few moments to find it. But it was getting dark. He would have to trust his other abilities, such as seeing in the dark and acute hearing. He looked up at the sky. The ion storm was making an Aurora Borealis to the north. Beautiful as they were, it would hinder the equipment he had, especially at night. He hurried along the scent trail.

He began to worry. Lexy's scent was taking him far away from the homestead. He was now at least three miles, and it still was straight and true. From the drawn out length of the smell, she had been running all along, and his mind felt he knew how she had been – a young child of ten, crying her heart out in a torment, her mother having told her that she was a mistake, blindly running without reason or direction towards…

…towards Two Bluffs.

Two Bluffs was really just a slice out of the land created by a dried stream, and was the two sides of the banks. But the trees and brush that covered the spot also made the gouge in the surface of the ground hard to see until you were right on top of it.

Kinza sniffed then pulled out his scanner again.

There she was. She had blundered over the first cliff and was lying sprawled like a rag doll at the bottom.

"LEXY!" he shouted as he clamored down the cliff face.

"M… Mr. Fuzzy?" she weakly replied. She could only barely see anything, and what she did see would have frightened her if she wasn't in such pain. Two glowing eyes were looking down on her.

"Aw honey, look at you," Kinza said as he got to work on her. He pulled out his com unit and keyed it up.

"Kinza to North," he tried – static. "Kinza to base," he then tried – more static. He looked up at the sky. There wasn't a ship in orbit because of the storm which was putting on a spectacular display of lights to the north.

"Kiddo, we are in really deep deep do-do," he told her. He checked on his tools and equipment. The storm was affecting everything, including some of his medical equipment.

"C-cold," she shivered.

He did a quick scan of her. Her back was fine - it was a head trauma that she was mostly suffering from. He pulled a thermal blanket from his pouch and spread it wide. He cradled her in his arms, wrapped them both up in the blanket and settled down to stay warm with his own body heat. He set his com unit to the distress setting and brought some tools into the mini-blanket tent he had made to work on what he could.

"You are a mess sweetheart," he told the girl as he worked on the nasty cut she had on her forehead. A trickle of blood from her mouth told him that she had bit her tongue as well. He shook his head as she shivered in his grasp.

The ionic discharge the atmosphere was getting worse as the night continued on. He knew it would be at its worst just before daybreak. At that rate, his wound healer would be either discharged or simply worthless. He could tell she had internal injuries. He looked about to see what he could do to augment his situation.

He pulled closed the thermal blanket, hoping the Mylar would shield them slightly. It only made a slight improvement to the scanner, but it was enough to tell him that the internal bleeding was in the area of her lungs and a broken toe. But the shielding wasn't enough to help the wound healer.

He looked at his belt. "Humm… maybe Tom can help…"

"T-Tom?" she asked.

Kinza laughed. "My new alter-ego," he said as he opened the control pack for the Tom suit on his belt. He popped open the control pad and looked at the circuitry. He pulled a pair of tweezers out of the medi-pack and began moving connections inside the unit. He quickly finished and sealed it up with a click.

"Okay… here we go…" he said as he hit the power button. The unit hummed then projected a curved dome that surrounded them at about a meter all around. On its surface was a stretched and distorted image of Tom the AmEx driver.

Inside, the wound healer and the scanner suddenly came to life. Kinza smiled – this was going to work…

"_Code two…"_

North's words returned to him and he snorted. "I'll be damned if I do that," he grumbled to himself as he now could see just where to use the healer. But then he thought about it – what was the real reason why he told him to hold back? Could he be changing the course of history by saving her?

She reached up and placed her arm around his neck and laid her head on his chest below his chin. "I knew you would come… my Kinza… my Mr. Fuzzy…"

She had never called him by his real name before. Even at their secret meetings to play tea or enjoy the fields of grass, he had always been Mr. Fuzzy to her. Of course how she knew his real name was anyone's guess – he figured she had heard him calling for help earlier… he didn't know. He shook off his doubt. The wound healer was put to quick work to mend what it could.

The night drew on. There was nothing more to do for her with the device, and the shield the Tom suit provided did little to keep out the cold, so when the battery failed an hour later it only let the chill in closer to them. Even though the healer had done its work, there was little it could do for the shock to her system the tumble had done, or for the blood already lost. Kinza kept the blanket close and her closer to keep her warm against the cold blast of air hitting his back.

"Kinza?" she asked weakly.

"Umm?"

"Have you a girlfriend? Or a wife?"

He looked down on the girl's dirty face. She had her eyes open only as slits, and she was staring at his patch on his breast pocket. He sighed and shifted her.

"Sweetheart, you're only ten years old… why would you want to know that?"

"Do you?" she persisted.

He laughed a gentle and deep laugh. "No wife, but I do have a girlfriend… Her name is Emmie…"

Lexy held him tighter. "Do you miss her?"

He considered his young interviewer. "Yes… I don't get to see her much…"

"Is she a pretty fuzzy like you?"

Now he really shook and Lexy held tighter. "She's not a Fuzzy dear… She's not a Tomassamassa…"

She looked up at his face. "Tommassa…"

"Tomassamassa, it's what I am," he said tapping his chest with his free arm. "She's actually humanoid."

"Humanoid?"

He smirked – all these questions… "You are human," he told her pointing at her nose. "A humanoid is a person who looks human, but is of a different species."

"You love someone of a different species?" she asked.

Kinza snorted. "Lexy dear, beauty is not augmented only towards one own species. There are many things to love in this world and all the rest. To have feelings for another sentient being should not be hindered simply because one isn't the same species or race. The simple act of being in the presence of that other person is all I need to fulfill my love for that person. Always keep an open mind, kiddo, okay?"

"Then you won't mind it if I say I love you?" She snuggled up under his chin.

He sighed and looked out of the small flap in the blanket at the nearing dawn. "You're my family, child," he told her as he rubbed her shoulder. "Of course you can say that."

She gave a little giggle. "Uncle Fuzzy," she said as she finally fell asleep. He soon followed.

"Distress beacon located," was what he heard that woke him up. "Sector nine near Two Bluffs."

"Affirmative," someone responded. "On site."

Kinza lifted the blanket and looked up at the now visible minor cliff. Shadow was looking down on him.

"Need some privacy?" she asked.

"I need a doctor, NOW!" Kinza barked, not exactly wanting humor at that moment. He was stiff, and his arm was asleep from holding the child against himself all night. He looked down on her and brushed the hair out of her face. When she at first didn't respond he nearly panicked. But she finally stirred and blinked at the bright sunshine.

"Daddy?" she asked.

Kinza looked up and saw Wolfwood scrambling through the brambles with Tolefson and Ike close behind carrying a fold-up stretcher. He bent down next to the heap out of breath. Kinza held up a paw, and Wolfwood grabbed it and shook it until it buzzed.

"She took a flop," he told him when he saw all the equipment.

"Bad?" he asked with some fear on his face. Kinza only nodded.

"I'll give you a full report when we get out of here…"

Then it dawned on Nicholas. "You're out of your suit!" he said.

"He's cute, isn't he daddy?" Lexy cooed giving her new 'uncle' a hug.

"Uhh," the reverend said. He then saw Shadow and nearly jumped up since she wasn't in her suit either. He looked down at the pair before him and saw Kinza with his finger against his mouth.

"Lexy is the only one other than yourself that knows," he said, "though Millie is still a question… just how much does she know?"

Kinza felt his neck get throttled when he mentioned Millie's name. He looked at the little girl he held and rubbed her red mop. "Hey… what's up?"

She was starting to cry again. "I don't want to go home… mommy doesn't want me!"

Kinza wrapped himself around her and rocked back and forth. "Shhh, no no no child, don't think that… Your mother loves you… she does… she's just not herself lately. Having a baby will do that to you sometimes. And everyone can be on the firing line when that happens."

"Kinza's right," her father added as he rubbed her back. "Your mother chewed me a new one just this morning… but I still love her, and I won't run away from her. Right now though, she is worried sick about you."

"She is?" Lexy asked, peeking out from under Kinza's beard.

"I'm sure she is," the Tomassamassa said, "so why not we go with these boys and get you checked out then get some breakfast, okay?"

"Okay!" she exclaimed as Wolfwood helped him to his feet. He then stepped a bit clumsily to the waiting stretcher and flopped on it still holding Lexy.

"Home boys!" he commanded.

North and McManus stood by the ambulance waiting for the group to come down from the bluffs. He shook his head and sat down on the tailgate.

"Well… he chose…" he murmured. "I hope he understands just what he's done… What he'll have to do now…"

McManus sat beside him and looked at the clear blue sky. "Would you have left her to die?" she asked.

North drew in a deep breath. "I've been there… I've done it… and I've done exactly what he did as well, and lived to regret it. History can't be tampered with without something happening – it's simple physics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction… unless you're a domino."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

North watched the procession coming down the hill. "If she marries and has a child, the repercussions could be insurmountable."

McManus leaned over. "You said 'if' – does she?"

North sighed. "I hope he understands," he replied. "I sure wouldn't want to do it."

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

"Fifth sin…

"What a horrible duty… what a horrible duty to perform…

"It is May of 1942…"

He slammed his paws on the table and just stared at his orders. "Crap… what sort of demented… twisted mind came up with these orders?" he cursed.

"History did," North said from behind a pair of folded hands. "History and the fact that you saved her life that night thirty years ago."

Kinza pounded back and forth before the desk. "But… she's been alone ever since her husband died in 1929!"

"And it was a good thing too, or you'd probably have to do something about him as well!" North pulled himself up to the desk. "Kinza, you were the one who taught me about the trouble time has when you disrupt it. You of all people should know the consequences!"

Kinza stopped parading and dropped his head. "Damn you… damn you damn you damn you! There isn't any other way, is there?"

North fell back in his chair again. "The history computers haven't found any, and believe me I've had them burning their circuits trying to find an alternate answer."

Kinza flopped into a chair and pinched his eyes with his paw. "Crap…"

"The problem isn't with Alexis," North said. "She doesn't remarry, and she doesn't do anything that disrupts history, other than publishing her husband's exploits with the help of her sister, and of course her own series of books. The problem is with her son Thomas… I can only guess why they named him after your two suit personas."

Kinza fidgeted. "T.E.… What's he do?"

North brought up a screen behind himself. "T.E. Folks is only a trainee pilot right now, but becomes an ace before the end of the year. He has his mother's flair for observation, and his father's adventurous spirit. Not only does he become America's first triple ace, he is awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery and skill. After the war, he becomes an All-Star third baseman for the Washington Senators baseball team and leads them to the 1948, 49 and 50 World Series. He takes off during 1951 and 1952 to join his friend Ted Williams as they both return to the Air Force to fly in the Korean War. When he returns, his wife and he proceed to have six children. From these children will come another line of Saverem descendants who change the course of history. The domino effect that it creates actually causes a delay in the launch of the SEEDS ships until it is too late and mankind remains on a dying planet. And this history never happened."

Kinza shook his head. "That's pretty ugly.

"What is worse is that the first 'kill' he has as a fighter pilot is this man," North continued as the picture of a Japanese man in a business suit appeared. "Usuke Fujishima was only a marginal pilot in his own right, and it was amazing that he managed to survive the war at all. But he did, and became the CEO of a small electronics firm – if he doesn't become that person, the company folds in 1958 during the financial crisis that struck during that time. But, that company needs to survive, since they are the lone provider of this…"

A small round device appeared that Kinza didn't recognize at all. North smirked.

"This is the containment frame that keeps a Plant from exploding. Fujishima Heavy Industries was the only company that managed to create a ceramic housing that could withstand the punishment of sending the energy of The Source through. This same ceramic housing is used in our warp drives. It is still made by FHI."

"I get the picture," Kinza said with his head down. "Can I just get him grounded?"

North sighed. "We checked on that, and no. Even discharged for poor piloting doesn't stop his changing history – he's what we call a hinge-point – in this case, an unplanned hinge-point. Go one way, history is complete. Go the other, and history takes a dive."

Kinza shook his head then looked up. "Disabled?" he asked hopefully.

North shook his head. "That doesn't work either. The guy is just too adventurous."

He grabbed his head with both paws. "Just like his parents! Damn it! I can't do it!"

North shut the screen off and sat back in the shadows. "Then we shoot him down from orbit, and the Japanese gain a story of a divine light coming down and smiting an American dog who would dare to attack them."

Kinza sat back in the chair and huffed. "Damn it… damn it all to hell… what do I have to do?"

"Report to the cargo transmat on the lower flight deck at o'nine hundred hours in the morning." North stood up and saluted.

Kinza stood and slowly stepped towards the door. "Rob…"

"Yo," the man said as he cleaned his glasses.

"When we met for the first time back in Tech Lab One… I told you then that I had greetings for you… and warnings…"

North stood and placed his glasses back on. "Yes you did," he said. "You saved my life then, especially when you dropped my older self on me as confirmation."

Kinza nodded. "We haven't done that yet, right?"

"Nope."

Kinza sneezed. "Blast it all… How can you trust me to go through with that now?"

North stepped around the desk and sat on its edge. "Because I trust in you more than I trust in myself. Because a Tomassamassian has saved me more times than I can count, and that your code of honor binds you to it."

The door slid open as he approached it. "Crap." He departed the room.

May 7th, 1942 dawned on board Forrestal without much fanfare save one thing – the engineers were busy down in the landing bay. Below on the planet, a decisive battle was beginning – Coral Sea – and a flight was about to be launched off the aircraft carrier Yorktown. A Grumman F4F Wildcat was being readied for launch – on board was a rookie pilot who had the highest training scores ever for a Navy pilot. He gave his ground crew a wave and was sent down the long flight deck of the carrier to follow its torpedo bombers as escort.

Kinza entered the flight deck and was surprised by who he found.

"Puruu… Xuru… What brings you two here?" he asked the adult Goddess and Demon.

Puruu stepped up to him and placed her arms around him. "You asked me to," she said.

"Oh frack, when?" he asked. The patch on his chest dinged and he tapped it knowing that the S.A.M. System was warning them not to say.

"She knows," Xuru said with near disgust. "She was there because you asked for her!"

The computer dinged again. To his surprise, it was Puruu who snapped at the speaker.

"S.A.M.! We KNOW!" she shouted.

"S.A.M., override command North-1," North said as he stepped over from the work in the corner. "You may continue without interference."

"Hello Rob," the adult demon said as she sauntered over to him and ran her finger across his chest. "Blow up any worlds lately?"

"Well, I see you're back to normal again," the scientist said. "Forgot that time you cried your heart out on my shoulder, ea?"

Xuru pulled back and glared at him. "Ah… yes… you remember that, humm?"

"What makes you think I'd forget something like that?" he grinned. "I also remember who it was that finally brought me back," he added gesturing to Shadow, who was standing next to the project that the engineers were working on. She was glaring at the demon while spinning the small cross she wore around her neck.

Kinza looked up at the tall Goddess. "What do you mean?" he asked her. "What do you mean I asked you?"

She held him close and placed her head next to his ear. He felt her power up, and felt the passing of feathers across his face.

Shadow gasped, clutching the cross now.

"Oh great," Xuru grunted. "She's gone full power!"

Puruu kissed Kinza's forehead and held his paws. "For what you are about to do, you are forgiven," she whispered. "She understands…"

"Who understands?" Kinza asked, his bewilderment growing by the moment.

She stepped back slightly leaving a shimmering ghost before him.

"I understand," a familiar voice said. The image solidified into the form of Lexy as a young woman, her red hair swept back and her blue eyes sharp as ever.

"No… no… Lexy, no this isn't right…" Kinza said as he stepped back.

"I never said that it was right," she said with a smirk. "But if it's a choice between the future of humanity and my son, well then… it's not like he's not coming to a better place…"

Kinza stood shocked by what he just heard, as did Xuru.

"Hey, I like this bird!" Xuru grinned. "Are you sure she's not one of mine?"

"No," Puruu smiled. "She is willing to sacrifice her only son for humanity's future."

"After all, I wasn't supposed to be there either," Lexy noted. She turned back to Kinza and smiled. She glanced skyward. "I'm being told my time is nearly up… do what you must Kinza, please." She reached down and kissed him on the cheek. "I still love you, Mr. Fuzzy!" With that she vanished.

Kinza was to tears, something he didn't want to show. He cleared his throat and quickly wiped his eyes. He glared at Puruu for a moment.

"I don't know whether I should thank you or scream at you," he said. "Tell me that this doesn't have to do with that project that you two were doing as teenagers?"

Puruu bowed slightly. "Yes… you called it your fifth sin…" When she looked at him next, a peaceful expression was on his face and he was smiling at her.

"Well now," Xuru said to the expression, "that's not the look I was expecting."

Kinza shook his head. "What you said explains all then," he said. "My fifth sin… one through four were all concerning Lexy as well I would assume…" He pointed at Puruu. "And I asked for you alone because you were also performing last rights, am I correct? The Slyznics finally gets me, right?"

Puruu looked away, a tear rolling down her cheek. "It hadn't been expected… our interview was suppose to have been a week prior to your passing, but the Federation computers had it wrong."

North quickly pulled a pad and pen out and jotted that down.

Kinza took her hand. "Well, it's good that you knew when it was then, or I'd have to ask you when it will occur. Seeing me bald was probably bad enough…"

Puruu reached down and smothered the Tomassamassa in a hug. "I'm sorry you have to go through this."

"It's okay… History's Daggers… I'm beginning to understand what that term means now." He kissed her on the forehead. "Thanks angel." He moved to the demon.

"Hey pretty lady, you're not suppose to cry," he told her as he saw a trickle running down her dark red skin from her golden red eyes.

"You're a pain, Kinza," she said. "A flat out pain in the ass." She surrounded him in an embrace unbecoming a demon of her rank but she didn't care. She had missed out saying her goodbyes to him. She pulled back and smiled at him. "I would say that when the time comes… to try hell… it's not as bad as they say…"

"…But I'm probably going through it now," he finished for her in a cracked grin. "You betcha!" He looked at the pair and scratched his arm. "I will assume that this isn't the last time we cross paths, so I'll probably see you both again."

"No," Puruu said, "this is not."

"Good," he replied as he headed for the engineers. He stopped and turned back to look at the two of them again. "Question for you two…"

They blinked. "Yes?" they chimed together.

"You two were paired back in your school days, right?" he asked them. "Why are you still together?"

The Goddess and the Demon looked at each other. "We're friends. We like each other," they answered him.

"Well I'll be damned," Kinza grinned. "The treaty worked!" He continued towards the cargo transmats.

"What's he talking about?" Xuru asked.

"The Treaty of Advent," North explained, "the sheet of paper that keeps your two sides from decimating each other was drafted by that lowly Elb." He then followed him while the two deities gawked at them.

"Gentlemen," Kinza addressed the crews working on a replica of a Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter, "remove any weapons."

Tolefson looked over the canopy at him. "Are you sure?" he asked. "We were just about to install the bullets…"

Kinza shook his head. "Leave them out. I don't want them. I know how I'm going to attend to this. But I do want you to add a shield generator to the hull of the aircraft."

"Ah," Tolefson said as he looked at the body of the plane. "Protection…"

"No," Kinza countered, "as a matter of fact, I want it set to polarize rather than deflect."

"What the hell for?" the helmsman asked.

"I understand," North said. "You want to go for a glowing effect – a stand out in the crowd look."

"Right," Kinza said, "and the fact that it will allow us to use this to a better advantage," he added with a kick to the base plate of the cargo transmat.

Coral Sea – the first battle of World War II where the opposing forces never saw their opposition – an entire battle fought in the air. It was the first flight in battle for the young T.E. Folks, but the nineteen-year-old man was quick sighted and extremely skilled with the yolk of his Wildcat. He saw the pair of incoming defense aircraft of the Imperial Ah

Japanese Navy and peeled off into the sun.

Before they knew what hit them, his Wildcat was baring down on them with bullets flying.

"Fujishima! Above!" the second dark gray Zero yelped as he peeled to his port side. The lead craft swung to his right as the Wildcat blew through the pair of them. It then seemed to do an impossible turn and headed for the first craft.

"Matsumoto! I can't shake him!" the lead Zero cried as it avoided the strafing fire. A few rounds caught the aileron, but his plane was still flyable, but one hot bullet in his unprotected fuel cell and he would be history!

Just then, as the American plane drew in for the kill, out of nowhere appeared a starkly white Zero fighter. It passed between the two planes drawing the attention of the American pilot away from his first target.

"Where'd he come from!?" Fujishima yelped in relief as he saw the white plane draw the dark blue-gray Wildcat down towards the water. He tipped his plane into a dive and followed along with the other Zero.

Then they saw something that even the American plane had not expected. The white plane shimmered then vanished.

Fujishima took the advantage of the angle and the confusion and promptly downed the American plane into the water. His voice cracked over the radio as North watched the translation appear on a monitor.

"Did… did you see that Matsumoto?" Fujishima asked.

"Damn… Ghost Warrior… Do you think we should report this?"

"Are you mad?"

He shut the screen off.

**¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤**

The paw that Puruu was holding squeezed her hand. She blinked as she looked at the body in the bed. It was hard to do so through the tears.

"So," Kinza rasped, "she forgave me in the past… I've confessed my sins… and you've got your interview… I can rest now…"

There was a gurgling sound, and he made one last attempt to swallow. And then he was gone.

Puruu lowered her head and prayed with his limp paw still in her hand.

She then heard a shrill whistle behind her. She looked back and saw Nepto the Android and Hank Josephs standing at attention at the doorway. Koni was being consoled by her husband beside them as was Ariel. Doctor McManus stepped by them to confirm what they all knew. She nodded and closed her scanner.

"At O'Four Hundred hours, please log the passing of Elb Kinza Farley, pilot and navigator of the starship Grand Council's Ship Pegasus," Nepto said.

"Affirmative," the voice of Mother, the ship's computer, said.

"Break anchorage," he continued. "Autopilot settings are ready – take the long walk…"

"Josephs to Hydron," the other Alman was calling to his com unit. "Standby for escort duty – ready the long walk… The lion sleeps."

There was a quiet "affirmative," from the unit.

"Hey, what did I just miss?" Xuru asked as she materialized in the room and was instantly hushed by Nepto. She saw Puruu and the condition of the body, and the fact that her friend had her wings out.

"Damn," she said under her breath. "He's off to Philly…"

"As a matter of fact," Nepto said as the ship rocked a touch, "no… Oklahoma."

Xuru and Puruu looked up at the android with perplexed expressions.

Pegasus lifted off the surface of Kinza's home world as sirens blared and flags lowered. She slowly spun about and began an approach across the planet that took her over the Royal Palace, then south to a small home in the rural mountains that had been the birthplace of one of the world's favorite sons. The ship landed for a few minutes as two drums of soil were stored in her lower landing bay. Family members that weren't going on the final journey were allowed to say their goodbyes, and those who were coming boarded the ship.

"It has become incredibly furry in here," Xuru noted as the few crew quarters were now filled with Tomassamassas, though there were a stray C'racz, a creature that looked slightly like an upright alligator with a Mohawk on his head, and a Rhizon, a pudgy weasel type with a very sharp tail, both of whom were from the races that lived on Pola-Lortos V's many moons.

'The Slow Walk' was an impressive sight, if not a bit… slow… in Xuru's mind. Pegasus had lifted off the planet and had been joined by the much larger starship, GCS Hydron. She was impressive in her own right as she was cruising with all shock cannons deployed and her crew on the outer decks in ceremonial salute.

It was then that Puruu and Xuru realized just how important this simple Elb had been to many. Pegasus entered a corridor of ships. There were all sorts of vessels – frigates, freighters, battle cruisers, basic transports, cruise liners, and the majority of the defense fleets, who would disgorge their weapons as their ship passed. They were approaching another ship in the corridor – Forrestal, with all her lights and trim flashing was holding station awaiting Pegasus.

The smaller ship deployed her landing struts and came to rest among the crew of the much larger starship, locking onto her back. Puruu and Xuru felt the vessel rock slightly as Hydron fired her own heavy shock cannons as a signal of transference of duty to her fellow fleet member. Once secure, Forrestal fired up her impulse drives and continued the slow walk for the next hour.

"Prepare for terminal transfer to the Trans Dimensional Barrier Zone," the speakers on the bridge of Pegasus said as they passed the final stragglers in the corridor of honor. Puruu and Xuru watched as Nepto sat in the seat he had been staring at for most of the time they had seen him, the pilot's seat.

"Pegasus secure and ready, Captain Strom," he reported.

"Thank you," came a courtesy call from Forrestal's bridge. "Sit back and enjoy the ride."

A grinding sliding sound permeated the ship. The girls watched the android Alman as he looked about.

"This always gives me the willies," he said, not giving the girls much assurance. He smiled as he watched the power levels start to peek.

As a Goddess-in-training and a Junior Demon, the ladies were quite capable of jumping dimensions on their own. But this was the first time they were 'enjoying' man's mechanical way of doing so.

"Entering the TDBZ," a voice announced. The dark expanse of space that hung in the windows along the ceiling of Pegasus' bridge shifted colors. First it was a blue tinge then red. Then the star field vanished and was replaced by a yellow haze.

"Welcome to the power field that connects to The Source," Puruu said. Xuru nodded.

"They make it look so easy," she noted.

"They just imploded their engines to do it," Nepto said with a smirk. "I certainly wouldn't want to do it."

"Doesn't that damage their ship?" Xuru asked.

Nepto shrugged. "Doesn't seem so. Inverse physics are sometimes very strange. Their implosion creates a warp field that puts them into this zone that allows them to transverse time and dimensions… odd isn't it?"

"Umm… very," Xuru said, noting not to ask such a question again.

"Stand by – reverse course," the com said. "Moving one week aft."

"What?" Puruu asked.

"They're moving a week back so that those on Deneb One may join in," Nepto noted as he adjusted his chronometer.

"That answers the question on why the Federation database was off by a week," Xuru noted to herself.

"No…" Puruu said. "That would make it two weeks back. We thought we had an extra week remember?"

"You're right…" Xuru shook her horns. "I'm confused."

"You and I both," Puruu noted. She then found that she had to grab the back of the Alman's chair as it felt as if the floor had just dropped away.

"Now moving to prime level," the com reported as everyone's belly felt a bit queasy.

"Everyone okay back there?" the voice of Forrestal's captain asked. "Our gravity generators didn't compensate for you being there, sorry."

Nepto looked back at the ill looks he was getting. "It's a good thing I don't have to worry about those things anymore then. I'm sending you the cleaning bill, Roy."

"Maintenance crews to Pegasus," Strom ordered.

"Stand by – departing TDBZ," the com announced. "Opening thrust baffles."

The grating sound that sent them into this yellow zone returned. The windows shifted their hues again and the stars returned to an inky black universe.

"United Nations Starship Forrestal has returned to normal time and space, Earth Normal Dimension Zero," the voice of S.A.M. announced over the com system. Puruu sat down in the empty Alman's chair and produced a calculator with an extremely perplexed look on her face.

"What?" Xuru asked as she watched her friend punch numbers about.

"I wish Skuld were here – she's so much better at calculating than I am," Puruu remarked as she scratched her head. "You heard what the computer said – they just _returned_ to their space normal time… that means that they were already a week ahead of themselves when they picked us up."

A mechanical finger came in and tapped the calculator in her hands. "That's because to keep any transferred life forms between our universes in their proper time lines when they are returned, it is standard practice by this ship to work a week apart from one universe to the other," Nepto told her.

"Really," Puruu said as if that cleared thing us – it was still muddy to her though.

The stars in the window above them spun about as the course was altered. Then they burst into a string of lines as the ship went to warp.

"Whoa, where are we going now?" Xuru asked.

Nepto watched the reading on his console. "We are heading… let me see… two seven eight seven mark fourteen… The planet Deneb One."

"No!" Puruu yelped. "Xuru, we must hide ourselves!"

The demon looked confused at her partner. "For Beelzebub's sake, why?"

"This is still our past, remember? And we're heading to the planet that Vash and Meryl live!" Puruu explained. "They met us for the first time when?"

Xuru gulped. "The Christmas party!"

"Then may I suggest you disguise yourselves?" Nepto noted.

"Huh?" the two girls asked.

Vash was loaded down with cases and cases of clothing. "Honeyyyy!" he whined. "We're only going away for three days! What's with all these suitcases?"

"We're going to Earth, dummy!" Meryl squawked back. "I don't want to be left without a change of clothing, and neither should you or Millie! Besides, I might want to see Nova while we're there."

Vash sighed. "Right… Millie?"

Meryl stopped in front of him and spun about, making him nearly lose a case or two. "You didn't forget to get her, did you?"

"Of course he did, he is my brother after all," Knives said as he sat drinking a coffee, "so I got her last night."

Vash stared at his brother. "Wolfwood let you take Millie?" as Meryl hugged him.

He shrugged as he started to munch on an English muffin while reading the morning financial report. He looked down at his clothes. "I think it was the suit," he said as he adjusted his tie after Meryl's hug. He turned and looked out the kitchen window at the skyline behind their home. Forrestal and her companion ship were passing over his corporate headquarters for KVSTollgate Corporation as they continued final approach towards the Juno Spaceport. He could hear his nephew and niece yelping at the sight. He sighed and continued to sip his coffee.

Millie was sleeping in, much to Meryl's amusement – she knew how diligent she was on the farm, yet get her off it and she instantly reverted to her slug-a-bed self. She leaned against the guest-room door and watched her friend sleep with a smile. Forrestal wasn't leaving until the next day anyway, so there wasn't any rush just yet.

But old habits are hard to kill, and she took the bell she used to call the kids in for dinner and started clanging hard on it.

"GET UP MILLIE! GET UP!!"

Knives and Vash listened to the clamor. "She gets her kicks out of that, doesn't she?" Knives noted.

"Constantly," Vash moaned as he loaded more clothes into the second suitcase - Just four more to go.

Knives closed his briefcase. "I will see you all this afternoon then – I have a short docket, and I wish to be in Juno by this evening."

Vash patted his brother on the shoulder. "Go get 'um tiger," he said.

Sara Montgomery watched the paired ships land at the spaceport in the valley from her backyard. The other night she had watched ships depart with her family. Now one had arrived with someone she and many called one of theirs. She turned and prepared her own bag.

The evening looked like celebrity night on Deneb One. Vehicles were arriving and dropping off the many people responsible for the daily running of the planet, and the many who had seen it through its darkest moments. Sara stood with her husband Lexington in full dress uniform as she watched old friends arrive at the lower hanger bay of Forrestal. She was nearly smothered when Brandywine appeared with Secretary Bryant of the Security Council. Dallas and Harrisburg also arrived, both of whom were to be pallbearers. Dallas still was using the Tunnel Steamer as a transport with his wife of the last four years, another Plant named Tulsa – the trip would be a homecoming for her as well. Harrisburg was now the Commandant of the Space Marines. He had never married, and always called the Marines his 'family'.

Then there was the arrival of the central figures of the crisis years – Vash Saverem and his wife Meryl Stryfe-Saverem, his brother Knives and Millie Wolfwood.

"Oh my, how things have changed!" Millie exclaimed. "You know, when the message had come about Mr. Fuzzy, I never thought I'd get a chance to go to his funeral… But could you tell me one thing Meryl?"

It had been an afternoon of Millieisms for the former Bernardelli Insurance girls. She shrugged and readied for another one. "What's that Millie?"

"Why are we going to Earth to bury him?"

A pair of androids that were beside the open casket coughed. Millie looked at them and pondered for a moment. Meryl was just happy that they had made that noise at that very moment. Even she didn't know that answer fully.

"Technology these days!" Millie exclaimed. "These two almost look real! Not like that one over there," she said pointing at the oddly shaped head of Heswald Nepto. She returned to looking at the lady androids.

"WHY… ARE… YOU… HERE!?" she yelled at them as if they wouldn't understand what she was saying unless shouted slowly at them.

"We are here on orders of Doctor McManus to guard the body," the red one said.

"You don't say!" Millie said while scratching her cheek. "Isn't that a surprise! I had a Doctor McManus in Oklahoma as well!"

"Fascinating," the red android murmured. The fair colored one beside it cleared her throat.

"You should get that checked out!" Millie advised.

"What's he holding?" she heard and turned to see Meryl looking in on the body. She walked over to see for herself.

"Oh, it's Mistletoe!" she exclaimed. "It's our state flower you know."

"Oh," Meryl said. She was having a hard time containing herself and finally turned into Vash and requested to be escorted away with her face planted in his chest.

"Oh Meryl," Millie said. "She's never really had to deal with the death of a friend, I mean other than my Nicholas… of course he came back… Mr. Fuzzy isn't coming back, is he Mr. Knives?"

Knives sighed as he stared at the still face of his 'only friend'. "If you only knew how I wish he could," he said to her. "If you could excuse me, Mrs. Wolfwood, but may I have a moment to myself with Kinza?"

"Oh," she said. "I'm sorry, yes of course. I'll be over with the others."

He nodded to her as she moved away. "She has absolutely no clue, does she?" he seemingly said to the air but then looked at the two android ladies.

"Pardon?" they said in unison.

"Please, don't lie to me," he said. "I can sense the energy you two exhibit. Yours is to the positive and yours is to the negative. I'm sure even Vash sensed it, as did any other Plant around here for that matter. So why are you here?"

"Well, umm, you see," Android Puruu started.

"We're part of the Observers group," Android Xuru finished with a lie.

"And since some here will know us in the future, we're in disguise," Puruu added to keep it a partial truth.

"Ah – that does make sense," Knives said as he looked down on Kinza.

"It's amazing," Xuru noted. "He was bald… where did all this fur come from?"

"Once he died, the disease did as well," Puruu noted. "It was easy enough for Doctor McManus to stimulate the remaining hair follicles to cover him again."

Xuru sighed. "He certainly needed it…"

"You were there?" Knives broke in. "You were there when he…"

"I was," the light android said looking down at the body.

Knives cleared his throat. "Did he… did he mention anything…"

Puruu raised her hand. "His last interview with me was a confession. I am not at liberty to discuss it. Sins are a private matter between his soul and his maker."

Knives crossed his hands as he stared at his friend. "Sins… He confessed his sins… I made him sin…"

Puruu coughed. "Umm, no… his confessions were not about you or his courts-marshal…"

Knives stepped back, a look of shock on his face. He looked down on his friend as if he was seeing something he didn't. "Sins? Sins other than what he admitted to with me?"

Xuru crossed her arms and scoffed him. "What? You thought he was a saint? He was simply mortal, buddy - Nothing more. He may have done all these wondrous things, saved the universe as we know it, but he was just as frail as you or me."

Puruu looked at the still body. "I don't know about that… if he did the draft work on the Treaty of Advent, are you sure he wasn't a saint?"

Knives looked between the two droids. "Just what are you… really?" he asked. "And what is the Treaty of Advent that he drafted?"

Puruu squeaked. "Well… I am a Goddess-in-Training… She is a Junior Demon…"

"Yes, that would explain the odd energy I feel," Knives said with some trepidation.

"The treaty basically prevented the annihilation of the universe as we know it," Xuru added. "Limitations, regulations, a whole bunch of –ations… Come to think of it, that means this is the guy that made me wear this limiter!" she griped as she pulled on an unseen ear ring.

Puruu rustled her invisible fancy one that dangled from her right ear. "We all have our limitations, Xuru." She looked at Knives and saw the look on his face. "Are we bothering you sir?" she asked as she saw him nearly step back.

"No… no, not at all," he said and adjusted his tie. "If you will excuse me…"

"What's with him?" Xuru asked scratching the back of her metallic head. She notices Knives stopping and looking back.

"Deities?" he asked. "Allowing a mortal to regulate your powers?"

"Well, for the good of the universe, yes," Puruu explained. "Remember, he just drafted the treaty… we had to ratify and obey it…"

Knives shook his head and continued on.

"Nice guy," Xuru said.

That evening saw the paired ships launch for Earth with those dignitaries that would accompany the body. Only a few hours later they came out of warp to yet another slow walk of ships, though this one seemed more ceremonial than the cluttered assortment that had been in the other universe. The line was composed of obvious fleet ships as the shapes resembled that of Forrestal and now Exeter as she pulled alongside her sister ship.

Just prior to entering Earth orbit, Pegasus detached from the hull of the larger starship and took the lead through the corridor of ships. Exeter dropped away as both Forrestal and the smaller ship began their descent to the planet below.

"I remember that first flight in," Puruu heard as she stood on the bridge of Pegasus. She looked over at the female officer who had said that.

"Scared the hell out of us, didn't he?" Captain North was telling the cat-looking woman he was holding by the shoulder. "He got us in there though…"

"What a first year," Shadow said as she laid her head on his shoulder. "The tornado… that stalker… and those builders they sent…"

"Foley and Dickinson?" North laughed. "Who said they were ever considered builders?"

Shadow looked at him. "The Observers Corps did," she said.

"Security Engineers… that means they know how to hide bugs and sensors," North laughed. "Sometimes the military mentality can think the most idiotic things."

"They nearly scalped me!" she laughed.

"They what?"

She looked at North. "Scalped me… you heard about that surely… those two assistants to Foley and Dickinson tried to use a laser gun to level the floorboards of the cabin!"

North stared at her and shook his head.

"Kinza didn't report that?"

North continued to shake his head. "No… that would have got them thrown in the stockade," he said. "When was this?"

Shadsie looked down. "Well, I wasn't hurt… They actually missed us by a couple of feet…"

"Us?" North barked. "You were on Nightwatch when they did that stunt!?"

"Rob, please…" she said as she saw him steaming. He raised his hands and showed he was calming.

"Okay… okay…" he said. "You know how defensive I get…" He sighed. "So, Kinza didn't report that incident, ea?"

Puruu turned away as Shadow was saying something about Captain Edwards knowing about the incident. Her eyes then fell on Millie. She was seated by a monitor watching the approach they were taking towards the planet. Puruu stepped beside her and watched as well.

Millie looked up at her and smiled. "You're one of those robots that are with Mr. Fuzzy, aren't you?" she asked. "But you're not really one, are you?"

Puruu looked shocked at her. What was it that Vash had said once? Millie was quite the observationist.

"How… how did you know?" she asked.

Millie giggled. "I'm a mommy dear," she said with her usual cheery self. "You can't hide a lie from a mommy! Besides, unlike your companion, you seem unable to lie well."

"I never lie!" Puruu exclaimed. She then heard a metallic tone and saw Millie tapping her metal hand.

"You're lying now!" she grinned.

Puruu gasped. She was! That… that was unheard of by a Goddess! Now she worried just what sort of penance she would have to endure.

"Oh don't be worried," Millie said as she brushed the lie off. "There must be a good reason why, otherwise you'd be burning in donut oil by now!"

"Donut oil?" Puruu could not fathom what she meant. She did notice that she had become a bit more solemn just then when she returned to looking at the monitor.

"Is there something bothering you Miss Millie?" she asked.

Millie watched a city pass below them – Dallas possibly. "For the life of me, why did he want to be buried at my old homestead's cemetery? It was in his will…"

It finally dawned to Puruu just why they were taking the trip to Oklahoma.

"Family," she said. Millie looked up at her.

"Huh?" she replied.

"He wanted to be with his family, or surrogate one at least," she said with a touch of wonder in her voice. "I understand now…"

"You're an angel, aren't you?"

Puruu looked down on Millie. "Pardon me?"

"Oh, don't worry dear, I've met a few, what with living in The Source and all," Millie laughed. "My great - great - great - great - great – umm – great granddaughter is always dropping in on me!"

Puruu smiled and shook her head. "No, but I do have one with me," she said. "Would you like to meet her?"

Millie blinked.

"Where did she go?" Meryl groused as she and Vash looked through the throng of furry siblings and dignitaries. "You would think that landing at her old home on Oklahoma she'd want to be the first one at the hatchway! Honestly!"

Vash peeked through a doorway. "Well, maybe she wanted to be alone for the moment, you know? It's got to be especially emotional to her."

Meryl looked back and was going to say something, but figured that he was probably right. She shook her head and continued to look into rooms.

Vash slid a door open. "Millie? Where for art thou? Oh, I'm sorry…"

The glowing form of Android Puruu raised her finger to her mouth and hushed Vash. She winked and turned back to the pair across the room from her.

Millie's face was wet and her lip was quivering as she held her daughter. A young Lexy embraced her mother.

Millie wiped her face as she looked at her again. "How are you doing Pun'kin?" she asked with a grin and more tears.

"I'm fine mommy… Mr. Fuzzy and I are just fine…"

Millie caressed her face with her hand. "Is he with you? You two always were nearly inseparable…"

Lexy looked back at Puruu with a shocked face. "You knew?" she asked her mother as she turned back to her.

"Of course she would," Puruu said. "You can never hide anything from your mother."

Lexy started to laugh. "I guess not," she giggled with the same effervescence that her mother would. She looked back and grinned. "Aunt Meryl?"

Vash looked under his arm. Meryl was staring at the glowing child standing in front of her insurance partner. Lexy started to walk towards her when the android raised her arm.

"Stay before me child," she warned. "Do not stray from the light of the Lord…"

Meryl heard the warning and rushed forwards to keep the child safe within the beacon of light coming from the android. She bent down to stare at the new face of a child from before her time. The girl giggled and danced.

"Oh, my big-big sister would have loved to have seen you!" she exclaimed as she took Meryl's hands in hers and brought her over to Millie's side. "We must set up a family reunion in The Source someday!"

"Oh, that would be wonderful!" Millie exclaimed. "Don't you think so Vash?"

Vash nearly broke into laughing. "Wolfwood would be ecstatic!" he said with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He quickly clammed up as he saw the look his wife was giving him.

"Hey, what's with the holy light?" the android Xuru barked as she looked into the room and saw the child standing in the glow.

"Uhh…" she said with a gawking expression on her face, "have you been carrying her all this time?"

Puruu shrugged. "She just wouldn't leave," she noted.

Xuru snickered. "You're stuck there, aren't you?"

Puruu looked at her feet, which seemed to have been anchored where she was. She smiled. "While the child is here, I am not concerned."

Vash looked at the red android. "And what are you carrying?" he asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Xuru coyly joked as she ran her finger under his chin and spun about and sat down in a chair across from them. Vash blushed then saw the look on Meryl's face – which was now redder than the android's own – and decided to walk over to her side. He placed his arm on her shoulder.

Meryl still elbowed him.

"I've got a question," Vash said as he rubbed his stinging ribs. "If you weren't supposed to know of your mother's past, how do you know her as your Aunt Meryl?"

Lexy stood in the middle of the light and grew a little – now she was a teenager. "As a family, eventually we found out that our parents would not be joining us in heaven, at least not anytime soon… we came to understand their mission in life… their purpose… and that they had returned to where they had come from – the Planet Gunsmoke. That is how we found out who we were named for, or in my case who I was nicknamed for."

She turned about – now the senior Alexis Saverem-Folks, adventurer and renowned author stood before them. "But their purpose had been set," she continued. "To start a mighty family tree that grows to this day. Oddly, I am here today because I wasn't supposed to be here. A quirk of fate made my life possible. If Mr. Kinza had not arrived when he did and come up with a solution, I would not have survived, and mother would probably have died. But, the fact of the matter was, his job was only to make sure mother survived. But because I did, our lives, and his life were changed and intertwined. He truly became family that day."

Alexis held her arms and walked towards the edge of the light and tested placing a finger beyond it. It faded. She drew her hand back and the finger returned. Puruu swallowed.

"Please don't do that," she whispered to the angel.

Alexis looked at her fingers. "Sorry – my sense of the unknown…" she said as she looked beyond the light. "I have always known I wasn't supposed to be, even here as an angel… You knew as well mother… As you say, I could never keep a lie from you, and you never lie… which means that when you once told me that I was a mistake, even though you didn't mean it that way, it was the truth…"

Millie gasped and held her hands to her face. Puruu did not like where this was going. She glanced back at her partner. Xuru stood up and began slowly moving around to the side Alexis was facing.

"Millie," Meryl whispered, "did you really say that?"

"Honey…" she managed to say. "Please honey…"

Vash stood up and moved to the opposite side of the light from Xuru. Alexis smiled and laughed.

"You would have an easier time catching a beam of light, Mr. Vash the Stampede," she said. "And you," she said to Xuru, "you can't touch this light without burning yourself."

"Why are you doing this kid?" the android demon asked.

"The last mystery… the final adventure… My life was a mistake… my family wasn't supposed to be, which was probably why my husband was taken from me… then my son… and by… by… oh god…" She fell to her knees sobbing. "Why did it have to be him? Why did it have to be him?"

"Who is she talking about?" Meryl asked as she too now was standing.

Millie's eyes were wide and wet. "Not… not Mr. Fuzzy?" she whispered. "Please, not him…"

"Nobody cares!" Alexis cried. She stood up and glared at Xuru. "My next adventure… is oblivion!"

"Don't do it!" she heard behind herself. It was a voice she had not expected. She was hoping it would be him, but it was someone with a bit more clout.

Vash stepped back, the black wings of his friend swatting him in the face.

"Daddy?" Lexy asked as she dropped to being a child again. Wolfwood stood outside the light.

"I was sent down here by two concerned people," he said grimly. "The one was your brother," he noted glancing back at Vash.

"Knives?" he asked.

"The other was our benefactor. He told me how to transfer down here using the door in the chapel." He looked back at his wings. "You know, I've sort of missed these," he joked. He returned his look to his daughter. She looked down, not wanting to see the stern look he was giving her.

"So, oblivion, ea?" he said as he placed his fists into his hips. "Do you really think that would be a suitable answer to your life? Do you really think we didn't love you? Do you think that what Mr. Kinza had to do wasn't the worst thing he ever had to do in his life?"

"Oh my god," Millie whispered. "It was him?"

Wolfwood took a step towards his daughter. He looked down and saw that his black pants, where they were lit by the light from Puruu, had changed to white.

"Great," he grumbled. He looked at Lexy and bent down to her level as she was now the size of an early teen.

"Do you really think this is the answer?" he asked her. "Do you really think this would solve all your problems? Solve all the hurt that has befallen you? Because that would only inflict the same hurt on those who love you, those who don't care that you may have been a mistake, because you were never a mistake child. You are my pun'kin, remember?"

"But… but daddy, they lied to me," she whimpered as a child. "They said that T.E. would be with me… up there…" She pointed at Puruu, or more towards the light emanating from her. "T.E. isn't there! All I have is George!" She looked back at Xuru.

"Hey, don't look at me!" she yelped while waving her hands. "He's not down there for all I know!"

She felt her father's hand on her cheek. She turned to look at him.

"Of course he's not up there with you, Pun'kin," Wolfwood said with a smile. "He's not dead."

Puruu nearly dropped the light she was glowing. Xuru gaped at him.

"WHAT!?" they shouted.

Wolfwood looked at the two androids. "You two know something about this?"

"Hammana… hammana… hammana…" was all Xuru could reply. Puruu could only shake her head.

"They do, but they can't say right now," Robert North said from the doorway as he and Knives entered the room along with a uniformed officer.

Millie stood up in a start. She just pointed at the officer. "THOMAS!"

"I don't see one in here," Vash said looking for a giant kiwi. He then heard a pair of heels snap together. The young officer was now saluting the child being held by Wolfwood.

"Lieutenant Thomas Edward Folks of the United Nations Starship Exeter reporting, MADAM!" he barked to his mother. "Miss Puruu, Miss Xuru, good day."

Xuru poked him in the belly with her finger. "Umm… he seems real…" she noted.

"But… but the fifth sin…" Puruu asked in total puzzlement.

North shook his head. "The sin wasn't that he had to kill her son, but take him away and not tell her. Kinza found another way – he used the same cargo transmat that he used to drop his airplane in front of the Lieutenant's here to also remove him from his aircraft. You put up quite a struggle too if I remember."

T.E. seemed to turn red and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, yea, but Mr. Kinza did straighten me out… He personally trained me, made me realize the changes that would have occurred if I had stayed in the past would have ruined the future."

"But aren't you doing the same thing being here in the future?" Vash asked.

"I'll be damned," Wolfwood cracked, "that almost made sense!"

North shook his head. "To us Observers, anything in the here and now is fair game for the future. He's here - he's now - so be it!"

Lexy took a step towards her son, changing again to the elder Mother he knew. He entered the light and embraced her as she broke into tears on his chest.

Wolfwood looked at Knives. "I don't get it, why was it that you were the one that came to the chapel to warn me of this going on?" he asked him.

Knives shrugged. "Kinza told me to," he said. "I heard his voice telling me to find you. Personally, I had no idea who this Lexy was… But she seemed extremely important to him… almost as important as this Emmie person he told me of."

The ship rocked slightly as it touched down.

"It's time," Puruu said. "I'm sorry…"

Alexis shook her head. "I'm the one who should apologize… I should have known than my Kinza would never fail me in such a way, and that I should never underestimate my mother."

Millie reached out and embraced her daughter. "You'll always be my little torpedo," she whispered to her. "I love you, always…"

It took a few minutes to settle the gathered in the small room. Finally, Puruu retracted the light and withdrew Lexy's spirit back within herself. She opened her eyes and found a face-full of Nicholas looking her over.

"Now then, would you care to explain just how my daughter got inside you?" he asked.

"She would not," North interrupted. "Now Nick, you of all people should know about asking an Observer about the future."

"These two are Observers?" he asked his friend.

North nodded. "Most definitely," he said. "Now then, aren't you on a clock?"

"Oh, geeze!" Wolfwood exclaimed as he looked at his watch. "How long have I been down here?"

North looked at his chronograph. "About twenty minutes. You've got roughly another ten minutes maximum.

"Before what?" asked Meryl and Vash.

"Oh nothing much," North commented, "just that The Source crashes, all mayhem breaks loose, and I think the lemmings start stampeding."

"LEMMINGS START STAMPEDING!?" Vash screamed. "NOO! YOU!" he barked at Wolfwood, "GET BACK UP THERE! WE CAN'T LET INNOCENT RODENTS STAMPEDE!"

"Is he nuts?" T.E. asked as he watched Vash grab his old friend and vanish for The Source.

Meryl shook her head and groaned. "Uuh, most of the time, yes."

"I don't know," Knives smiled, "I find my brother to be refreshing sometimes."

The fact that Knives was smiling at all gave Meryl a creepy feeling. She shivered and shouted at the ceiling, "YOU IDIOT! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR…"

"The funeral?" Vash finished for her as he reappeared behind her. His wings flapped once and vanished leaving a few stray feathers. "I'd never miss such an event for a friend."

Millie stood next to her grandson just looking him over. He blinked and looked at her.

"Is there something wrong grandmom?" he asked.

She reached up and straightened his uniform's collar.

"There!" she said with a smile. "Fit as a fiddle!"

"I think they're all nuts son," North said to the Lieutenant as he cleaned his glasses and started to leave the room. "You'd better run while you can!"

Puruu held her head. She noticed North leaving and followed him. Xuru joined her, not wanting to be asked unwanted questions alone.

Puruu was surprised to see that North was waiting for them outside the room. Xuru bounced off her back. He was looking them over.

"Let me guess, Nepto suggested this look," he noted. The two girls looked at one another and nodded. "This was not the sort of thing you expected in your interviews, was it?"

They shook their heads. "Sir, why didn't Kinza tell me?" Puruu asked.

"That T.E. survived?" He scratched his head. "Remember how sick he was, Puruu. It may have simply slipped his mind. Mind you, he was always choosing the harder way to proceed when it came to these special tasks."

"How so?" she asked.

North leaned against the bulkhead and sighed. "Transmatting a subject out to avoid a historic error is probably the riskiest thing to do, especially when they're armed." He saw the looks he was getting from the girls and laughed. "Military pilots are armed. There are six bullet dents in the deck plates of Forrestal around the cargo transmats. If he hadn't stopped him, T.E. could have killed someone."

"Kinza stopped him?" Xuru asked. "How?"

North grinned as he remembered that day. "Your mother isn't going to like it if she finds out you shot Mr. Fuzzy!" he quoted. "Stopped him cold. He then took it upon himself to train the boy, make him realize that the future would be a wiser place to be. Granted, he was leaving much behind, and his own history would have been a great deal more impressive, but the fact of the matter is he's alive, the future is intact, and life goes on. Isn't that a kick?"

A spring morning greeted them as they exited Pegasus. Dickinson and Foley saluted North as he stepped off the ship. He saluted back.

"Is everything ready?" he asked them.

"Aye sir," Dickinson replied. "Saverem Historic site ready for internment."

"No it isn't!" they heard. They looked back to see Millie storming out of the ship. "Where's the rectory!?" she shouted.

"Oy… Miss Millie, these aren't even the original houses," Foley pointed out. "This whole area was wiped out by a tornado in 1971!"

Millie blinked. "Then what are those?" she asked pointing at the buildings that she could see up the gently sloping hill.

"Reproductions mum," Dickinson explained. "Completed about twenty years ago by the Oklahoma Historic Preservation Society - They based it on what the site looked like around 1900."

"Oh… 1910 you mean," she smiled as she held her hand over her eyes.

Dickinson and Foley blinked as she walked by. "M'am?" they asked.

"Nick's motorcycle is leaning against the barn," North whispered to them. "I told you, she's a very good observer!"

"Oh my!" he heard her exclaim. He looked up and saw what she had seen. He shook his head and laughed.

"What a showoff!" he yelled at the Cheverian as he and his rider came in for a landing on the path up to the homestead.

"He wanted to stretch his wings," Shadow giggled as Nightwatch reverted to his normal horse appearance.

"Diamond Mane!" Millie exclaimed as she ran up to her old horse and hugged his neck. "Is Betsy around too?"

"Umm… no," he said. "Betsy was a regular horse, sorry."

"Oh, that's okay," she smiled. "Hey, when did you learn to talk? And who is that riding you?"

Shadow smiled and held up her hand and pointed at her ring finger. "Put this on, signed 'S'," she said to her.

It took Millie a moment to think as she looked at her hand and saw the gold band on her own finger. "You're a jeweler?" she asked.

Shadow got up off the ground after falling off Nightwatch's back.

"Shadsie was the one who put your ring in the dresser that you found it in," North reminded her.

"Oh, I know," she giggled. "I was just kidding!"

"Sure you were," Shadow groused.

Millie sighed as she looked at the old homestead. "You know, it's a shame that the old cabin couldn't be put there as well."

"Oh, it's there mum," Dickinson said. "We put it up on the hill behind the barn, since the church is where it would have been before."

Millie turned and looked at him. "You did?" she asked.

Foley and Dickinson scratched their heads. "Well, we were there when Mr. Kinza built it in the first place. We and the Toll boys just followed his old plans again."

Millie nodded and grinned. "Then he was part of the family even before there was one!" She turned and continued on towards the house leaving some to ponder her words. Others just scratched their heads. Knives laughed and shook his.

The ground began to rumble. The procession looked over the rise of the hill beside the path as Forrestal and Exeter landed on the flat plains above the homestead. As they did, a herd of cattle was seen being moved towards the old 'Steakhouse' that was up the road. Millie sighed at the sight.

"All those years… how old was Mr. Fuzzy, Pastor North?" she asked.

He had his chronograph open. "In real years or Time-Dilated years?" he asked back.

"Huh?" she asked.

North laughed as he wound the unit and slipped it into his pocket. "Well, for your reference, he was about forty."

Puruu was close behind him when she heard the first question. "And Time-Dilated?" she asked.

North glanced back. "Ah, well, as an Observer, he worked many years outside the normal time-lines. You don't age when you're off your own personal time-line. I bet if we looked at his actual chronological time-line that we'd find he was actually around a thousand years old." He pulled out his com unit and started to tinker with it as those around him, including Vash the old man, gawked at that thought.

"One thousand seven hundred eighty six years, four months, six days, fourteen hours twenty nine minutes, Earth Greenwich Mean Time at time of death…" North's little pocket communicator said.

"What, no seconds?" Vash asked.

"Huh," North grunted. "He was older than I thought…"

They headed for the rear of the chapel. Millie stopped as she saw that the tree she loved was missing.

"I'm sorry mum," Dickinson noted. "The tornado got it as well."

She nodded and looked at the cemetery that had been beside it. The stones looked as if someone had taken care to repair any flaws or damage. She stopped at the first one and touched the rough concrete pillar that held a simple marble plaque. The name 'GERALD EDWARD SAVEREM' glared at her. Beside it was a smaller headstone that bore two names. 'GRETCHEN' was on the left side next to the pillar stone while 'DAVID SYLVAN' was to the right.

Meryl stepped next to Millie in case she needed any help. She couldn't fathom what it was like for her seeing where her children had been buried so long ago.

Millie laughed. "Gretchen always did have it bad for both my boys," she said. "I see she got them both!" She giggled and continued through her family's section of the yard. It was Meryl who stopped and held her breath.

The stone before her read 'MERYL EILEEN WITHERSPOON'. Next to her were her husband 'HARRISON EDWARD WITHERSPOON' and two smaller names. The first only read 'Child - Boy'. The second was 'Bonnie'.

Millie returned to where Meryl had stopped and looked at the stones. "Oh," she said.

"Those names…" Meryl asked with her hands to her mouth.

Millie looked at the ground and scratched the grass with her toe. "Umm… Meryl had a stillborn child. And Bonnie died of the influenza that hit in the early 1920s."

Meryl shook her head. "I don't know how you're doing this Millie," she said. "These were your…"

Millie shook her partner by the shoulder. "Hey! You're supposed to buck me up, not the other way around! Besides, if we have the reunion up in The Source, I'll be seeing them all again…" She glanced at the gray overcast sky. "As long as they all went up there that is…" she added as she continued on.

Millie was guided along by a keeper of the property to a spot where the earth had been opened for the grave. It was still within the section reserved for her family, and she noticed that they were beside a set of headstones. She looked at the marker and smiled, then broke into a gentle rain of tears.

"Oh, that's perfect," she said as Meryl finally got up to her and let her lean onto her shoulder. She looked at the headstone beside the hole.

"ALEXIS VICTORIA FOLKS" she read aloud. "I don't get it, why is this perfect?"

Puruu and Xuru saw the grave and understood the relationship perfectly. Mr. Fuzzy would forever be playing with his little Pun'kin. They just hoped he could handle it. They stepped aside as the casket with the six pall bearers moved towards the grave. Dallas and Harrisburg was in the front, Nepto and North were in the middle and Vash and Knives were to the rear.

The actual funeral ran for nearly three hours. Every dignitary felt the need to expound about the nobility and good deeds this lone Elb had done to the point that even Kinza would have wanted them to stop. The wildest point came when the Tomassamassa family members let loose with the traditional 'release of souls' roar. Over fifty cat-like creatures howling and yelling for all they were worth was both surprising and exciting as they bid their departed to Bahdom's Gate. Millie at one point joined in.

"Today, four families have come together to say goodbye to a favorite son," Heswald Nepto said as he addressed the gathered. "The Saverems, for whom Elb Kinza Farley was more than their protector, but for many, he was their only means of life - The crews of the Starships Forrestal and Exeter, for whom, even while ill, he managed to create a service record that was both heroic and astounding - For my own family aboard Pegasus, for whom Kinza was brother, father, son and friend - And of course, his own direct family, for whom we are eternally grateful for allowing his presence to forever grace us.

"I have had the pleasure of serving with two members of the Farley's… his father and of course Kinza. They were both student and teacher to me during our journeys, and I was proud to call them friends. Now, I could droll on about the merits, the heroics, the utter god-like life he lead… but I won't… Because in reality, he didn't. Kinza wasn't the font of all knowledge… he wasn't incredibly strong, wise or beautiful… as a matter of fact, I'm told by some of his family, he was a rather average Tomassamassa."

A murmur crossed the crowd as he leaned over the podium and held up his hand.

"What he was," he continued with his finger pointing out where he was going, "was a warrior."

The Tomassamassas voiced their approval of that synopsis with a quick cat-like roar.

Nepto held up his hands to hush them as he smiled. "Warriors do not want or need such ceremony upon their passing. Warriors want to go forth victorious in life and strong in spirit. Warriors want to die in a blaze of glory with a dagger in their hands and their enemy lying beside them. Now granted, the time when the Tomassamassian race went to battle in such a way has long since past. But each one of them still hears that primal wish in their souls. Kinza was one of these.

"A Tomassamassa prides themselves with their honor. Honor and loyalty above all else is their credo, their drive, their burden if you will. In the final weeks of his life, as he was quite willing to admit, Kinza lost much that would have been called his dignity, but he kept his honor. He kept his loyalty. And I'm proud to say, he kept my friendship."

The crowd broke into a rousing cheer as Nepto saluted the casket.

"Well, he certainly got the kitties riled up," Vash noted to Meryl. He noticed a tug on his arm and looked down to see an elderly Tomassamassa gesturing for him to bend over.

"The kitties also have exceptional hearing," she said.

"Ah ha, well… I meant kitties in a very friendly way," Vash tried to apologize before nearly getting sliced. Meryl snickered that her husband deserved that.

Nepto cleared his vocal processor. "Today we have gathered as one… diverse as a group can be, but family in every sense of the word. Brought together by a friend, a brother, an honored hero, and united in our love for this life that we knew. We shall always cherish it. We shall never forget it." With that, the Alman nodded and stepped down from the podium.

The casket was lowered into the hole beside Lexy's grave. The two containers of soil from his home world were brought along side and blessed by a Tomassamassian cleric who surprised the locals by jumping into the grave to bless it as well. He sprightly jumped out again as two Tomassamassian Nuns started to trowel the soil into the hole with golden hand spades while family members tossed in small trinkets they were carrying as they filed past.

"Well, that's different," Dickinson noted as he saw North stand.

"It's tradition," he told those around him. "Family and friends place an item that is important to them and the departed into the grave as a way to remain connected to them." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his chronograph and tossed it into the hole. Shadow held the scanning rod and reader that had been Kinza's and threw it in.

Millie sat with a look of sadness on her face. "I didn't bring anything… I didn't know…"

"I've got an idea," Vash said as he stood up from his seat and stepped outside the gathered. He first removed his suit jacket and tie then he started to remove his shirt.

"Vash! What are you doing!?" Meryl nearly shrieked.

"No, no! I think that's a great idea!" North interrupted. "Go ahead!"

Meryl looked at the Captain as if he had lost his mind. "Trust him," he told her. "He knows what he's doing."

Meryl looked back and saw that her husband had even removed his undershirt and was now concentrating. As he did, she could see that familiar glow off his back he would get when he linked up with The Source whenever he would take them up to see the Forgiveness Chapel.

There was a sudden gust of wind as his white wings exploded from his back. He had to catch his breath as he had already generated them once that day. He held his hand up to show he was all right.

"Okay folks," he panted. "Each one of you, take a feather…"

"Excellent brother," Knives said as he stroked the wings he wished he could generate as his predecessor had. He then quickly jerked one and held it up. It was at least a foot long. He was handed a tag by North and a pen.

"You at least have to let him know who it was from," he told him.

Millie looked at Vash's wings and then at his face. The one Knives had removed obviously hurt, as he winced at its removal.

"Are you sure this won't hurt much?" she asked.

"I can stand it, don't worry," Vash said. "See? The one he removed is already growing back. Just don't take it from the same spot, okay?"

She nodded and gingerly felt the smooth feather in her fingers. She grasped it and tugged… and tugged… and tugged again.

"Millie! Millie! Millie!" North yelped as he saw Vash grimace each time as if a thousand volts were being sent through him. "That's a main feather! Try that one there – it should come out easier!"

Millie clutched her face. "Oh, Mr. Vash, I'm sorry!"

"Hey," he said with swirls in his eyes. "No sweat! Here!" He reached up and yanked out a feather for her.

Meryl was next. Vash swallowed as he cleared his head. She gestured for him to lean down much like the old Tomassamassa had. This was after all '_she who must be obeyed'_ – He gingerly leaned over to her.

"I love you," she said as she as she kissed him on the cheek and plucked a feather. She then tickled his nose with it. "You're too much," she added as she stepped away and took a tag from North.

Vash sneezed then yelped as another feather was removed.

Wolfwood stood outside his chapel after cleaning up from his rapid return to The Source. He was looking up at his steeple. For some reason the bell was making a small tapping ding noise. He pondered it while scratching his head.

Tags written and tied, the family members placed their feathers into the grave. Vash used one that had come off when he had brought the wings out. He joined the group after retracting his sore wings and putting his shirt back on. He looked in on the grave and tossed in his feather along with the rest. The trinkets made for an interesting collection of mementos. Many of the Federation mourners had placed items brought along from the many adventures they had with Kinza.

"I hope that's empty," North noted of a red and white ball lying to the side of the scattered items. He noticed a sizable thump as another article was dropped in. He looked at it and whistled.

"I take it you have a spare?" he asked the android Alman.

Vash looked at the reddish gold plate that had been tossed in by Heswald Nepto. "What is that?" he asked.

"That is my Dylithium core from my recharge unit, and yes, it's a spare," Heswald noted with a sad smile as he turned and walked away.

"That seems an odd item to leave," Meryl noted. Dickinson and Foley both cleared their throats as North gave it an impressed look.

"I wouldn't say that," he told them. "To him, that is like removing your heart and dropping it in there… and also… remember that sixty billion double dollar reward of yours?" he added towards the former gunslinger. "That's worth at least three times that."

The sun started to break through the clouds that afternoon as Millie stood on the porch of the restored house she once called home. Shafts of light could be seen dancing across the vast valley of prairie and trees. She sighed as she took in the vista once again and leaned against a column.

"I can see why you loved this so," Meryl told her. "This is beautiful!"

Millie giggled. "This is… at least today it is. This area can be pretty rough weather… though it seems a bit greener than I remember."

"Weather control," Foley noted as he sat on the stoop. "There hasn't been a tornado in these parts in nearly sixty years."

Millie huffed. "That takes some of the excitement out of it," she said with a bit of disgust. "This is a wild place. It deserves to remain wild, not tamed."

"Well, they don't have total control of the weather, mum," Dickinson noted. "Otherwise, that cloud cover we had this morning would have been out of here. This place still gets its load of snow in the winter. It's just the heavy stuff the WCS controls."

She sighed. "Maybe… it still seems to lack the wildness of the past."

There was a rumble and a thumping drone. Vash suddenly came barreling around the front of the house on the reproduction of Wolfwood's Harley followed by a few of the keepers of the property.

"I can see why he loved this thing!" he yelled as he tore around the back. "I want onnnnnnne!"

Meryl sighed. Millie laughed.

"This is where I want to come," she said. "When the time comes, I want to be with my children."

Meryl looked up at her partner. "But… Millie, you haven't aged since you entered The Source…"

She shrugged. "I can if I want to," she casually noted. "I think I'll have a talk with Nicholas when I get back." She looked back at the cemetery and sighed again. "I just wished the old tree was still back there. The children always loved that tree."

Groundskeepers were finishing the filling of the grave. They had noticed the two lone figures watching them and figured they were just part of the crowds now returning to the three starships for their return voyages. They gathered their tools and dismantled the canopy that had been over the site. They left a spot ready for the new headstone that was leaning against one of the others.

"Thank you," Puruu said to them. "May we have a moment alone here?"

The faces of the men seemed to go blank for a moment as her words seem to mesmerize them. "Yes m'am," they blankly said as they gathered their wheelbarrows and headed for the barn.

The girls reverted to their normal forms. Xuru stretched her wings making them snap in a nasty way.

"Oh, that feels better," she said. "What a day… So, how long have you been carrying Lexy?" she asked her friend.

She looked down and saw Puruu on her knees before the grave praying. "Aww… must you?" she complained. She looked around the grounds and felt about. There were a few that had gone to her home rather than Puruu's… that was good. But that particular part of the cemetery seemed too clean for her tastes. The souls there had been all pretty clean… save maybe James Patrick there… one too many lies in his youth.

She felt a hot sensation to her left and looked over at Puruu, who had started emanating that cursed holy light again, though this time she was also spreading her own wings. She covered her face as the image of someone stepped out of the Goddess-in-training.

"Well, I'll be damned," the vision said. "They did put me next to Lexy."

Xuru stood in shock. "How… ha… HEY! How long have you been carrying him in you as well!?" she yelled.

Puruu sighed as she released her bond to the soul that was standing before her.

"Whoa! Don't do that!" the Junior Demon yelped. "He'll dissipate!"

Puruu shook her head. "He hasn't been to Bahdom's Gate yet. He's a freed soul right now."

Kinza grinned. "Yea, I thought I'd take in Philly first," he said with a grin and a wink towards Xuru as he sat on his headstone. Xuru jumped and laughed.

"All right!" she cried. "Still in for the adventure! Won't they be waiting for you up there though?"

"Where's the excitement in that?" he remarked. "I'll get there sooner or later. Right now, there's another adventure waiting me down this road, not that one. These last few years made me remember just how much I missed that. Oh, and by the way…" He reached down into the soil of his grave and pulled the Dylithium pack Nepto had placed in there. "…Please return this to Mr. G… tell him I appreciate the gesture, but he doesn't have a spare. Besides, North was right… these are expensive."

Xuru caught the tossed plate of crystal. "So, you're really going to, well… Hell?"

Kinza burst out laughing. "I've been told I was going there all my life, I might as well check it out first hand! HA! Naa… maybe the outskirts… I don't think your father would be too happy with a freed spirit loose in the underworld, now would he?"

"Especially the one responsible for the Treaty of Advent!" Puruu giggled.

Xuru nearly burst on that. "Oh, that would be precious to see! Daddy would turn yellow!"

Kinza laughed then looked at the two ladies. "Look, I always told you two that we'd meet again, so this is not goodbye. I'm sure we'll see one another."

"Hey, I'd join you on that trip, if they'd let me out of school," Xuru grinned.

"Well look me up on your summer vacation then!" he said as he lifted off the headstone and floated briefly. He then shook has head and landed.

"I'd rather walk," he stated. "I haven't had a good walk in years." He started to turn away when he spun back to face them with a grin.

"One more thing for your project you should know," he told them as he stepped over to a Saverem headstone. "I know where this name came from."

Puruu oohed and produced a notepad. "Yes? Yes?"

"Tell me you didn't give them that name!" Xuru exclaimed.

Kinza smirked. "No… S.A.M. did…"

The girls looked at one another. "The COMPUTER!?"

Kinza laughed. "Yup," he said as he put a paw over the last three letters in the name and gestured to it.

"Save," Puruu read the remaining word.

Xuru slapped her forehead as Kinza removed his paw. "REM!" she yelped as she read the remaining letters.

"Project Save Rem…" he said shaking his head. "You'd think someone would have been a bit more creative…" He gave a howling laugh as he turned to leave.

He looked up at the house at the remaining people who had gathered for his funeral. One stood out, because she was looking right at him.

"Hey," he asked, "does she see me?"

Puruu looked up at Millie. She smiled. "Try waving."

Kinza waved his paw. Millie waved back.

"Dang… Vash was always right about her. She is observant!" Kinza said as he turned to walk down the path towards Laverne Station. He turned to look back and saw that Knives had joined her on the porch looking.

"What do you see?" he asked her. "Is he there?"

Millie looked at Knives then back at the downward sloping hill. "He's waving and walking down the road. He's fading… I… I don't see him anymore…"

Knives drew in a breath. Meryl touched him on the shoulder. She was surprised as he spun around and started to cry into her shoulder.

"Why couldn't I see him? Why couldn't I see him?" he moaned.

"Goodbye Mr. Fuzzy," Millie said under her breath.

The long stretch of road that had once started out as only a dirt trail, then a buggy path, now a paved street lay quiet in the open fields under a midday sun. Around a bend came a Tomassamassa running for all he was worth. He was followed by a blond-haired man riding a vintage motorcycle!

"AW COME OFF IT VASH! I KNOW YOU CAN'T SEE ME, BUT WOLFWOOD ALREADY RAN ME OVER WITH THAT THING!" he was shouting.

"Whoo hoo! This is a blast!" Vash cried oblivious of the bear-cat he was running down.

"FRACK!"

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**I can't believe my partner! **_

She went off and interviewed Kinza all by herself!

Well I can do that just as well!

And I know just who to interview

Next Chapter of T:MC – The Oklahoma _**Years – Pistol Sermons – Interview with Wolfwood – Part One **_

I can't let Puruu have all the fun now, can I?

Robert North, Tolefson, Dickinson, Foley, Frean Lar, Roy Strom, Puruu, Xuru, Nightwatch (Diamond Mane), The Observers, Heswald Nepto (Mr. Gizmo), Koni, Lotha Farley, Kinza Farley, Ariel, Hank Josephs, Mother, GCS Hydron, GCS Pegasus, UNS Forrestal, UNS Exeter, Scat Backs, SAM System ©2004 DMS – Used with Permission  
Alexander Ramsey (Alex) ©2004 The Estate of Barbara Ann Doms/DMS – Used with Permission  
Shadowcat (Shadow, Shadsie) ©2004 S. Nordwall – Used with Permission  
PokéBall ©2004 Nintendo/The Pokémon Company  
"Lord of the Rings" ©2004 The Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien  
"The Chronicles of Narnia" ©2004 The Estate of C.S. Lewis  
"Rumpole of the Bailey (she who must be obeyed) ©2004 John Mortimer  
"GHOST WARRIOR" ©2004 Reiji Matsumoto  
Skuld (from Ah! My Goddess) ©2004 Kosuke Fujishima  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2004 Yasuhiro Nightow  
All characters from TRIGUN: MOON CHILD ©2004 The MOON CHILD Project/DMS – Used with Permission

©2004 The MOON CHILD Project II/Denivan Media Services


	5. Int w Wolfwood ¤ P1 ¤ Pistol Sermons

TRIGUN: MOON CHILD  
**THE OKLAHOMA** **YEARS  
**Based on "Distant Lives" (FFN #3519328/9) from Trigun: Moon Child **Chapter Five  
****Interview With Wolfwood**

**Part 1 **

**Pistol Sermons  
**By R. A. Stott

The man groaned from under the weight of the large cloth-wrapped cross laying across his back. His buddy was kicking and screaming in pain from underneath him.

The cross was lifted off them and planted with a clank into the soft soil. A flick of a snap and the straps holding the cloth flung free, exposing the gun-box nicknamed The Cross Punisher. It was lifted up by the central trigger switch, deploying the massive machine gun that ran along its long arm.

"HALLELUJAH!" he shouted as he let loose with a salvo of bullets. "REPENT SINNERS!!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey!"

Wolfwood looked at his feet. There were at least four chibi Vash the Stampedes circling him in a silly mad dance all chorusing "Don't kill them! Don't kill them! Thou shall not kill! Thou shall not kill! What sort of Preacher are you, huh? Huh? Huh?"

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAAAP!!" he shouted as he resumed firing at some unseen enemy. Ricochets rattled off the buildings nearby as a cloud of dust billowed through the street.

"But Mr. Preacher," a voice from a silhouette in the falling soot said, "smoking is bad for the children!"

The dust parted and Millie fell to the street with a thud.

"HONEY!" he shouted. He wanted to run to her, but found his feet glued to the ground. He looked at the Vashes and found them all pointing their silver revolvers at him.

"YOU KILLED THEM! YOU KILLED THEM ALL!" they shouted as their arms shredded away at their sleeves and their guns became Angel Arm cannons. He had little time to react as they tore loose their rings of energy on him.

"DAMN!" he yelled as he yanked his head off his desk in the rectory. Sunday's draft sermon was plastered to his cheek. He peeled it off and leaned back in his chair and looked at the dark walls sweating. Blast he could use a cigarette just now.

"That looked nasty," he heard from his doorway. He looked over and saw a dark backlit form of a demon as she slowly folded her wings back and forth. "Bad dream?"

"Who is that? Xuru?" he asked as he rubbed his forehead with his hand. "What can I do for you?" he grumbled. He seemed more miffed at her question than the nightmare he just had.

"I show concern, and the best you can ask is 'what can I do for you'?" she mocked him. "Such gratitude!"

"You're a demon – I'm a man of the cloth… I think I have my reasons…"

"Oh," she said with a coy wink. "I'm a bad girl and you're a goody-goody? I don't believe that for a moment, Reverend. And I think you know that as well…"

Wolfwood grunted. "What do you want?" he now snarled.

"Your life… your history… your memories, silly," she replied as she leaned against the door jam. "School projects are such a pain…"

"I seem to remember you saying that you fought for the honor of this assignment," a cattish voice said from the dark sofa across the room from them. "Isn't that the truth?" N'ya asked with a toothy grin.

Xuru huffed. "Oh, it's you," she snorted. She looked back at Wolfwood and bowed to him. He sat upright not expecting such a greeting from a demon.

"Please sir, may I interview you?" she asked.

"Me? By yourself?" He craned his neck to see if the Goddess-in-Training was with her, but only saw the back wall of the hallway behind her.

"Why not?" she grinned as she looked up from her bow. "Puruu is off getting a verdict on her last interview session, seeing she did it by herself and all…"

"She did?" N'ya asked while washing a paw. "Why would she do that without you being present? And why would she need a verdict?"

"Well…" Xuru coughed and cleared her throat. "The interview was actually a confession… she needs clearance to use any of it in the project."

Nicholas leaned against his desk. "Confession? Whose?" he asked the demon.

Xuru shook her finger at the Reverend. "Now-now sir, you know as well as I do that a confession is a private affair. And even though I'd love to tell you, I'm under orders to keep it mum." She then came over and sat on the desk and winked at Wolfwood. "Wanna know?"

N'ya gave a loud coughing noise that sounded like a small car backfiring. "Unless you want the wrath of your elders, young lady, I would stifle that thought right now."

She stuck her tongue at him. "I could have told him it was yours!"

"Ha!" the Kuroneko chortled. "I'd never have to confess! I have nothing to hide!"

She crossed her arm and stared at the cat. "And who was it who scratched up the back corner of his pulpit?"

N'ya looked at his shiny white claws. "I'm a cat. I have to sharpen them somewhere!"

"You do know that when you're scratching the pulpit, you're scratching me as well?" Wolfwood said through gritted teeth.

N'ya curled away. "Yeep! You're tied to this building just like Rem was connected to her tree?"

Wolfwood nodded his head. "You know, you don't seem anywhere as wise as you were before you decided to stick around here."

"Aheh… yes…" the black cat coughed. "I need to take a trip… Bye!" With that he jumped down, ran out the door and through the wall as he vanished into sub-space.

"I keep forgetting he can do that," Wolfwood said. "You know he was helping me with my sermon."

"Oh yes, he was doing a splendid job, wasn't he?" Xuru laughed as she pointed at the desk where she had found him sound asleep. "You need the help of your daughter Meryl again, don't you?"

Wolfwood sat back. "You really have been taking in everything, haven't you?"

"Meryl would edit your sermons… so would Millie…" Xuru spun off the desk and sat in a chair the best she could with her wings and tail. She looked at the Reverend and saw him gesturing across the room.

"Wouldn't you feel more comfortable in that?" he noted.

She looked over. She saw the black jacket Wolfwood normally would wear resting on a chair-back that seemed familiar. The Reverend walked over to it and removed the coat.

"M-my chair… Kinza's chair…" she whispered as she saw the narrow backed chair meant for her wings and tail.

"I guess someone knew you'd be coming here," he said as he returned to his desk.

She grunted. "Damn it!" She stood up, moved the seat closer, inserted her tail through the special hole at the base of the chair-back and sat with a huff. "Does this mean you'll allow me to interview you?"

"Like I have a choice?" he laughed. "Well then, where would you like to start?"

Xuru conjured up her notepad and pencil. "Well now… You were an adventurous man… and so far, all Oklahoma has given me is the soft stuff – the action is what I'm looking for."

"But I was a married man with a growing family then," he replied. "What sort of adventure were you looking for?"

She flipped her notes back, surprising herself at just how much she actually wrote down. "Well now… you admitted before that even during your time in Oklahoma that you had times that you had to take the bull by the horns, so to say?" she noted as she tweaked her own small pair protruding from her head. "And after all, you are Nicholas D. Wolfwood…"

"How the hell did you hear that?" he asked.

Xuru snapped her fingers. Instantly they were seated in the blazing sunlight of the twin Gunsmoke suns. She was seated on one side of a chunk of wall, while he was still seated on the other. But he was also seated ON the lopsided wall, though this Wolfwood had wings.

"DAMN!" the reverend yelped as he scrambled to his feet. He then noticed that his other self wasn't reacting to them. "What the hell is going on?"

"There are some cases where actually observing what went on first hand is better than any question I could ask," Xuru smirked. "Of course, I could get much more than I expected, and the teachers frown on the use of this technique, but we are allowed to use it as a means to prepare for the interview."

Wolfwood looked at himself, wondering just when this was – he had sat on this slab numerous times – then he noticed… he wasn't smoking a cigarette.

"God, this was just after returning to Gunsmoke," he whispered to himself. "After Oklahoma…"

The man on the wall section pondered the world around himself, especially the young men, women and other creatures meddling around in the Observer Trainee's post there in Angel Wings. "Will I ascend for my life with her, or will I fall because of my first life?" he muttered to himself. "God, only you can tell me. I've been blessed with two lives… this one counts as my third… or half… whichever."

Wolfwood stood and watched as the Plant-Angel mulled over his previous life. He was shocked to find that he could repeat word for word what his former self was saying.

"The truth is," they said, "even in my life with her, there were some things I wasn't proud of. I guess that's just what it means to be human. But I tried to be the best husband I could for her, right?"

"I slept there that night," he said. "I thought I had lost Millie again. I thought that this would be the end. When the fighting was done, all that would be left would have been the trial, then oblivion. That was all that had been promised me by the Plants."

"Then maybe we should go further back in time?" Xuru suggested.

Wolfwood looked about. "This isn't the chapel. I'm not allowed to leave the chapel for more than forty minutes or so…"

Xuru reached over and knocked on something solid, even though she was tapping on thin air. "We haven't left your office," she noted. "This is merely an illusion. Why aren't you allowed to leave the chapel?"

Wolfwood rubbed his neck as the past faded back to the office they had been in. "Well, not just the chapel – The Source… I can't leave The Source for more than forty minutes, or this reality would vanish, and I'm told that the entire Plantoid race would have a headache that they'd never forgive me for."

"It also involves the safety of your family, Reverend," N'ya said as he stuck his head back through the wall. "You need to be here so that they could survive here. Even with Millie's reworking of your basic central work, this chapel, she would not be able to survive here without you being here. Truth is, even as with your predecessor, Rem, you are the central Source of life in this universe. Without you, it all crumbles."

"Gee, don't put too much on my back!" Wolfwood grunted. He noticed Xuru looking down at the Kuroneko.

"What are you doing back here, fuzzball?" she was snarling at the cat.

"What do you mean?" he snapped back. "I've been away for the last three weeks touring the outer rim having the adventure of my life!" He looked cross-eyed at them for a moment. "Aw nuts, did I come back just after I left?"

"Truth be told, yes," Xuru said as she crossed her arms and smirked at him.

N'ya rubbed his nose with his paw and sneezed. "Hairballs… I must be getting senile… I can't even sniff my way through the timelines anymore without dropping out of the streams… I miss the tree…" He shuffled off down the hallway muttering to himself.

Xuru pulled out what looked like the remote from a television or VCR. "Nothing worse than a truth kitty with sinus problems!" she said as she twirled the device. "Now, let's see what's on…"

"What?" Wolfwood chirped as the room vanished and a field of wheat sprouted around them. Off in the distance he could see the cabin.

"Where are we?" he barked as he stood up and took his bearings. With the cabin still there, it meant that this was early on, but not too early. This was wheat they were in – he had tried his hand at it only once while the cabin stood. This had to be spring of 1895!

"This is a sorry looking crop," Xuru said as she started walking towards the cabin. "Coming?"

"What the hell are we doing here?" Wolfwood barked, now showing signs of anger towards the demon.

"I told you, we're looking in on your more adventurous life, not your dull Reverend Saverem bit!" Xuru winked and continued on.

"I thought you said that we'd stay in my office!" he yelped as he started after her.

She laughed. "We are still in your office, silly!" she said with a giggle. "But to anyone looking in on us, they'd think we were out of our minds!"

N'ya ears drooped as he watched the pair blindly walking about the office, knocking over stray objects as they did.

"What foolishness!" he griped. He turned and found a spray of wheat swatting his nose.

"PHAA!" he griped. "How did I just get swallowed up in this?"

"Just lucky kitty," Xuru grinned as she continued towards the cabin.

The sound of a crying child wafted through the early summer air. The open cabin door allowed them to see a figure inside rocking back and forth while nursing the infant.

"1895… 1895…" Wolfwood was muttering to himself as he stepped through the field. "What happened in 1895?" He looked in and saw Millie and Baby Meryl peacefully together and smiled. The reason for their visit escaped him as the memory of this blissful time washed over him.

"Damn! Crap! OWWW!"

He looked back over the porch at Xuru, who was nearly in tears with laughter. She was pointing around the corner of the cabin towards the back where the chicken coop was.

"Oh god, the eggs…" he said, the memory of the moment returning to him. He was doing the coop that day, and some of the chickens had decided that he was a tasty morsel. To add insult to injury, the hutch lid had slapped down on his back, and half a dozen of the eggs had just splattered across his pants.

"This is not going to be a good day," he said as he saw himself stagger away from the coop with a basket of eggs that he now had to clean.

"You're telling me," N'ya said as he jumped up onto a rail-post to the corral that kept the horses penned up. Wolfwood noticed that and placed his hand on one of the cabin's beams. He looked at his younger self as he started in on the muck that was across his front.

"He can't see us can he?" he asked the junior demon.

Xuru stepped up to the egg-splattered man and waved her hand across his face with no reaction. "See?" she said as she grinned back at them. "You have to remember, we're not really here."

"Are you sure?"

N'ya looked beside himself at Diamond Mane, who had sauntered to the edge of the corral and was watching the mess his owner was getting into. "He might not see you three, but I do," he said.

Wolfwood just stood and pointed at the horse, his mouth agape. Xuru stepped up to him and closed it with a finger to his chin.

"You might let something in that way," she kidded him.

"HE SPOKE!" Wolfwood finally barked. "I KNEW IT!"

"Idiot!" the horse rebuked.

"EXACT-ly… hey…"

"Lay off Diamond Mane," the egg-splattered Reverend griped as he started in on cleaning what he could off the contents in his basket. The other Wolfwood stormed over to the horse and planted his hands on the rails of the fence.

"You mean to tell me that you could always talk!?"

Diamond Mane looked him in the eyes and snorted. "As an Observer, I am stationed here. The welfare of your family is my duty," he said quietly.

"So why can he see us and not him?" Wolfwood asked as he pointed at the horse and his egg-covered self who was now waddling around the front of the cabin with his bucket of cleaned pullets.

"He's a Cheverian," N'ya said with a rub against the large neck that was beside him. "He is named Nightwatch. Cheverians specialize in guiding and teaching those they deem special."

"You make it sound like there are many of us," the horse snorted.

N'ya bowed while on top of the post as his tail flipped over and flopped across his head. "Pardon me, oh most unique of creatures!" he sarcastically noted. "Truth be told, you're not unique to this universe."

"We are rare," Nightwatch retorted.

Wolfwood shook his head. "Yes, I'd say a talking horse is rare…"

"Aheh…" N'ya grinned. "Not exactly just talking," he added.

Wolfwood was about to ask what he meant when a gust of wing blasted him and most of the corral vanished behind a pair of huge black shimmering wings which had sprouted out of nowhere off of Nightwatch's shoulders. The size shocked him, and also reminded him of the pair he once had.

"Cheverian, roughly translated, means Aero Horse," Nightwatch noted as he folded the appendages again as they vanished into his shoulders. "As for why I can see you I am uncertain… You three are obviously not here, yet I can see and hear you."

Xuru sat on the rail next to them. "Not to break up this mutual admiration society, but we are here to interview you," she told Wolfwood.

Nightwatch moved over and nuzzled up to the demon. "I know you from somewhere," he said while peering at her with his left eye. He snorted and backed up a step. "Ah, Xuru… How is your mother these days? When last I saw, Gabrella was having her hands full doing her council duties while handling an armful of a certain baby demon."

"Oh, you know my mother, ea?" she coyly replied. "I never knew that she knew a Cheverian, let alone one so hansom?"

Nightwatch shook his mane. "Down kitten… you have many years ahead of you before you should be acting like that," he noted.

"Let alone species," Wolfwood added.

She giggled. "Species means nothing to a full demon," she grinned. "Haven't you ever heard of a demon horse?"

Wolfwood shook his head. "I've had my fill of demon thomases and horses… not to mention cars and motorcycles…" He looked about, remembering the day that he had the eggs all over himself. "This is not a good day."

"Ohhh?" Xuru asked. "And just how?"

Wolfwood gestured to his earlier self as he stumbled out of the cabin to clean the mess off himself. "I'm about to trip and add to that mess," he mumbled.

He stumbled slightly and continued past them, much to Wolfwood's surprise. But he was even more shocked when he watched him snap back and fall to the ground dead. He felt dizzy and staggered a bit as he saw the bullet hole that was oozing blood from his younger self's forehead.

The shock of the moment caught Xuru by surprise as well as she juggled the remote she was holding and quickly pressed the pause switch. She jumped down from the fence and walked over to the corps. "Uhh… this didn't happen to you, did it?" she asked as she moved the body slightly.

Wolfwood was having a hard time breathing. He grabbed his chest and held onto the fence post he was next to. "Of course not!" he managed to bark.

"This is not good!" they heard N'ya yelp. He had jumped off the fence when the shot had been fired and was near the edge of the porch. They looked at what he was staring at and saw Millie and their child held in time as they were coming out to see what had happened.

"I… I know what's happening!" Wolfwood grunted through the pain. "I fell down… the fencepost shattered, and I had to tell Millie to get inside…" Sweat was pouring off his face and his vision was getting blurry.

"Jeeze, you don't look good," Xuru said. She looked at the remote and pressed reverse. The small cloud of dust the falling body had made backed up and then launched the man back up to his feet. The wound vanished and Wolfwood could breathe again. He then watched as his former self froze again. Looking over he saw that Xuru had again pressed pause.

"I thought you said we were still in my office!" he barked at her.

Xuru reached over and tapped the wall again. She scratched her head and looked at the remote. "I don't understand it… We're still in your office, but we're also here in Oklahoma… Got any ideas Night… oh…" She looked at the Cheverian, but he was frozen as well. "Umph… this is going to play tricks with his mind!"

"So what happened?" N'ya asked as he looked at the fence. "You said that this rail shattered?"

Wolfwood nodded and looked at the post. "Yea… yea, this one took a bullet meant for me… but I had fallen down… why didn't I fall down?"

Xuru held her hands up and snorted. "Wait a minute… exactly what was happening here? You said this was going to be a bad day."

Wolfwood looked at her with the realization that they didn't know what was going on. "Ah… yes… this was the day I got bushwhacked," he said as he examined the area again. "And I know by just who!" He bolted for the grassy hill that would later have the cemetery in it.

"WAIT!" Xuru shouted but a bit too late as Wolfwood slammed into the rear wall of his office.

"What… happened?" he groaned.

"You have to keep us within a certain range, or you'll run out of room in your office," she explained while hiding behind the remote.

"Uhhh… we should have done this in the rectory's gym…" he moaned. "Come on…"

They walked through the grass to a still figure who was holding a rifle out. Wolfwood snorted and nearly kicked the frozen man.

"Frank Dartmouth… a notorious bandit from these parts…" he grumbled. "He's known for killing settlers and stripping their homesteads."

"So what happened?" Xuru pondered. "You said that you tripped and the post splintered behind you, yet you obviously took a bullet to the forehead instead…"

N'ya sneezed as a blade of grass tickled his nose. "Truth be told, I think it's because we were suppose to be here," he sniveled as he rubbed where the leaf had brushed him.

Wolfwood looked back at the paddock area at his still form. "You mean to tell me that I have to go and TRIP myself?"

"Guess so," Xuru said as she scratched one of her horns. She then noticed that N'ya was climbing over the form of Frank Dartmouth, rubbing up against his cheek. "What are you buddying up to him for, furball?"

"Hardly," he said as he peered down the length of the rifle's barrel. "Just as I thought… we have another problem." He raised his head up and looked over the field at where the gun was aimed. "If he maintains this angle, he won't hit the post. He'll hit Nightwatch."

They all looked back at the homestead. "Are you sure that he won't just attempt to follow me down as I fall?" Wolfwood asked.

"Can we take that risk?" N'ya asked.

Collectively they sighed and began walking back to the corral.

"What would happen if we just got out of this little glimpse of the past?" Wolfwood asked. Xuru pondered that for a moment and snapped her fingers.

Oklahoma blinked for a moment, but it wasn't the office they found when it left, it was a vast yellow haze with high winds and no church.

The grass returned to brushing against their legs. They sighed again.

"I wouldn't do that again until you settle this," they heard.

"Yea, someone might get hurt!" another voice said.

"Needle noggin'?" Wolfwood asked.

"Who are you?" Xuru asked the other man.

Vash the Stampede was standing beside a bald man in a Federation uniform who looked as if he was having a headache.

"Blast it! Why did you insist on doing this in such a small room?" he griped.

"Burnside!" Nicholas said with a surprise. "What are you doing here with our favorite broomhead?"

Burnside rubbed his head. "Getting down to why there's a temporal anomaly in your rectory's office, that's what!" he grumbled. "Damn I hate checking these things out. You can never get out of them without getting beat up."

"So what brings you here, Mr. Vash?" N'ya asked as he rubbed up against the ex-gunman's legs.

"Hey, I'm just the lift here," Vash said with his hands in the air. "Burnsy let us know that there was something going on up here, so I brought him up."

Wolfwood plopped his hand on the officer's shoulder. "Aren't you getting a bit old for this?" he asked with a smirk. "What are you doing on Gunsmoke anyway?"

Burnside snorted as he continued to rub his nose where he had smacked it into something unseen. "I live on Deneb One!" he griped. "I retired from active duty on the Observer Corps… I'm on reserve duty now… I only do local things like this."

Xuru clutched the remote with both hands as she nibbled nervously on its end. "A temporal anomaly? How bad? I mean, do you think…"

She stopped when she saw the glare from Burnside. "They saw this clear to the border of the Gamilon and Romulan Empires… we have ship diverting two thousand light years to avoid the turbulence simply because it stretches from Deneb back to Earth! So yes, I would say that they see this all the way back to your school!"

Xuru dropped to her knees. "Eeep!" she squeaked.

"Now now," Vash said as he tapped Burnside on the shoulder. "You don't need to be so harsh… Tell her the good news!"

"Good news? Where is there any GOOD NEWS in all this?" the Federation Officer barked.

Vash shrugged. "Well it'll be good news for her at least…" he suggested. Burnside thought about it a moment and nodded.

"I guess so," he said. "Well, it seems that this was supposed to happen, so you're not to blame… totally…"

"Totally?" she whimpered.

"Well you did open this time view," Vash said while scratching his cheek.

Xuru looked about. "But what went wrong?" she asked. "I've done these in class before, and I've never become interactive with the scenery… unless…"

"Unless…" Burnside urged as if he knew but wanted her to figure it out.

"It would take an increase in energy to do so," she said. "But I haven't increased my energy…"

Vash waved a finger. "Uh uh – you need to take the environment you're in as well…"

Xuru looked about. "Here?"

"You're in The Source, m'am," Burnside noted. "And you brought along a conduit."

"I did?" she asked in a confused teenaged way. She looked at Wolfwood, who gave her a little twiddle-y wave with his hand.

"Hi there, I'm a Plant!" he said. The realization swept over her as she stepped back and slapped her forehead.

"Ragnorok! I forgot he was a Plant!" she grimaced. "So what's going on now? Are we stuck here?"

"Until we settle any other interaction that we find," Burnsides said as he looked at a data PADD. "There are a few showing up at numerous locations on the time-line."

"Wait a minute," Wolfwood interrupted. "What would have happened if we had never come here?"

Burnside shook his head. "That wouldn't have happened… This is what we call a fated intersection. It was bound to happen, so hoping or wondering if it would is moot."

"It is?" the perturbed Reverend asked.

Burnside shrugged. "Believe me if we thought about it too much, we'd just get headaches."

Wolfwood pinched his eyes. "Don't worry, I've already got one."

Vash clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Okay, so what should we do first?" he asked in a sprite tone that got him a rather terse look from Wolfwood.

Burnside stepped over to Xuru's side and examined her remote. "That thing have slow-advance?" he asked.

"Great," Vash exclaimed as he turned on his heel. "I'll see what can be done over…"

He fell backwards holding his nose.

"That felt like a wall," he complained.

"Because it was a wall," Wolfwood said as he lifted him off the prairie grass. He then looked confused to Xuru. "Where did that come from? Didn't we just see that it wasn't there anymore?"

"To us it's gone," she explained as she added a jog-shuttle dial to the remote. "To them it's still quite there."

"Great," he grumbled. He then reached out and felt the edge of a bookcase. "Looks like its back for us as well…"

Xuru did the same and plunked her hand down on something soft. She looked under her hand and found it full of golden blond hair, and the face of Puruu looking back at her.

"What is going on here Xuru?" she asked.

The junior-demon gave a slight grin and shrugged. "Oh, hi there Puruu," she grimaced. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," the Goddess-in-Training remarked as the rest of her appeared in the still grass. "The council needs to talk to you about our last interview."

"But I wasn't there for it," Xuru complained.

"At the very end you were," Puruu corrected her. "They want to know if you overheard anything that should be stricken from our report!"

"Ohhhhrrgh!" Xuru grunted as she grabbed her horns and spun about. "They are going to make me see saints!"

N'ya jumped up on a rock and looked about. "Truth be told, this office isn't this big folks… There are way too many feet for my liking in here!"

"The fuzzball has a point," Wolfwood said. "If we're back in the office, we'd better not have anyone else join us here…"

He then turned and got a face full of Millie.

"Join you where honey?" she asked as she blinked at the sudden sunlight she was in.

Wolfwood stared at her in disbelief. "Chickie, where are the kids?" he finally asked her.

"Umm… they're in the school," she said as she looked around at the vista that she now had view of. She noticed Vash and waved.

"Hellooo!" he said.

"Hellooo!" she replied. Wolfwood slapped his forehead.

"This is getting to be some party!" Xuru said with a grin. Puruu shook her head.

"It would probably be best if we all got out of your office," N'ya noted as he darted between legs. "Follow me and I'll get us to the side door." He then promptly stubbed his nose against the hallway wall.

"You didn't do that before," Wolfwood kidded the Kuroneko. N'ya snorted and slid along the invisible wall.

"Honey, what's going on?" Millie asked as she clung to his arm.

"Ask the students," he grumbled as he guided her out the narrow unseen doorway into the hall. He looked back at the form of Frank Dartmouth back in the tall grass. "Isn't this a bit wrong? I mean, won't we simply wind up back in there?"

"We've been doing laps in your office to walk a straight line here in this reality," N'ya said as he bounded into the field beyond the doorway. "Now that we're all out here, unless we walk into the buildings, we should have more freedom of movement." With that he flattened against something, and a chicken appeared out of nowhere.

"Found the chicken coop," Xuru said as she looked at the remote in her hand. Puruu examined it as well.

"Aren't these history scans centered around the location of an object, such as the remote you're using?" she asked. Xuru blinked and then grinned.

She reared back and let the unit fly much to the shock of everyone around her, save Burnside.

"Not a bad idea," he said. "Hopefully there isn't anything in the way between us and that remote."

"A good idea? How so?" Wolfwood asked still puzzled by the toss. He watched as Xuru carefully followed the remote's trajectory.

"Puruu is right," she said as she started to walk to where the remote landed. "This projection we're in is centered on a singular spot, which I chose to be that remote control. So by tossing it there, we change the center of the projection. Hopefully, if I remember correctly, that should be around the field south of the church, so let's get going…"

Puruu looked behind them. "It is also a good thing we didn't get slapped in the back by something large and heavy when you made that toss!"

Wolfwood reached back and found a solid surface there. "That feels like the back wall of the barn!" he grimaced when he saw just how close it was.

As they started for the control, they noticed that they weren't actually moving, or at least the ground they were walking on wasn't. But the remote was getting closer.

"This is weird," Wolfwood mumbled. He was about to ask why this was happening but was interrupted by a squawk from behind the group. They looked back to see that the chicken who had joined them was being dragged by some unseen force. Millie walked back and gathered up the bird and rejoined her husband as they resumed walking towards the remote.

"This is very strange," Millie noted. "Is this some sort of game?"

With that, Wolfwood slammed into something solid and low. He keeled over and squeaked. Vash stepped over to him and placed his hand on whatever it was he hit. It had a strange top, and what felt like a handle to one side. He grabbed the unseen device and brought it up and down.

"Found the water pump," Vash said.

"Yay," Wolfwood gasped. He then suddenly had a face full of water splash him that seemed to come from nowhere.

"Must be beat up on the Reverend Day," N'ya remarked. He jumped back as he got a swipe from the wet preacher's hand for it.

Xuru scratched her head. "Odd… the water entered here, but the chicken coop and this water pump didn't… why is that?"

"Because they aren't organic," Puruu noted.

Xuru looked at the small pool of water. "Ew… you mean there's something organic in that?"

"Most likely," Puruu sighed.

"Wait a minute," Burnside grunted. "The chicken, Millie, myself, I can see that coming here with the assistance of those here, right? And the birds were here in The Source to start with…"

Wolfwood nodded from his seated position. "Yea, the chickens were brought in by the Vash Express…"

"And transferring chickens to The Source is no easy task!" Vash said with exasperation in his voice. "Can they squawk!"

Burnside shook his head – too much information there – "But the water… that's created by The Source here isn't it?"

They all looked at the water, then at Millie.

"What?" she asked.

"Umm," Vash started, "come over here and see if you can touch the water pump, would you Millie?"

Millie saw where Vash's hand rested and nervously reached out with a single finger to see if she could tap on the invisible pump. As she did, the metal unit appeared as did a long pipe that seemed to vanish into the ground, which now didn't seem as opaque as it did before.

"I was afraid of that," Puruu said as they examined the wellhead. She then looked at the ground behind them and saw that where Millie had been walking the ground seemed darker. "Since she is the creator of the world we visit in The Source, Millie is bringing little bits of it here with her. We must take care not to have her touch anything else until Xuru picks up the remote."

The Junior Demon smirked. "That should be a cinch then," she smiled. If I remember right, that should be an open field out there, right?"

"There's a few large stones," Millie recalled from memory, "and of course the cows…"

They all blinked at her. "Cows?"

Millie smiled her patented smile. "Oh yes, I let them out into the lower field this morning."

Xuru flung her wings wide and floated over the ground. "Where!?" she shrieked.

Millie scratched her cheek. "I'm not sure. They could be anywhere… where are we?"

"I don't know!" Xuru yelped as she scanned the ground between them and the remote. "But I'm the only one in bare feet here, and I don't want to step in processed organics!"

Puruu floated up beside her. "Oh, you think sandals are any better?" she noted.

Wolfwood sighed as he wiped his face and shook off the pain he had been inflicted with. "Let's just get that remote," he grumbled.

With the Goddess-in-Training and the Junior Demon floating off the ground, the others started to walk towards the remote making sure that Millie was surrounded – they didn't want any extra objects to appear in this weird world they were now in. But then they found themselves dragging the two floating ladies as well. Reluctantly, Xuru and Puruu lowered to the ground and continued towards their objective.

"Ew – ew – ew – ew!" Xuru complained, expecting each step to be a messy one. But they managed to finally drag the remote within grabbing range. She reached down and found that something was in the way.

"Must not be anything organic, or it would have joined us," Vash said.

Burnside shook his head. "Not exactly – she's a demon. And since it was her powers that created this projection, she can touch things in the real world without bringing them here."

"Well why didn't you tell me that in the first place!?" Xuru barked.

Burnside scratched his bald head. "Sorry – slipped my mind…" he meekly answered her.

She snorted and let out a breath of air. "Well good, because I think this is a cow."

"Which end?" Wolfwood asked.

Xuru looked back at where her hands were with panic in her eyes. She slowly drew her hand up and over the top of the unseen shape - It stopped on something thin and sticking up.

"What the heck it this thing?" she pondered. "It seems stiff and it's vibrating…"

"Oh, that must be its tail!" Millie exclaimed. She then got an expression of fear on her face. She jumped and grabbed Xuru by her own tail and yanked her back. The chicken in her arms squawked.

"YEAAAAAOWW!" the junior-demon shouted as the shock of her tail being yanked charged through her body like lightning. She bore her nails, her teeth and whirled around with fire in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Xuru," Millie apologized. "But that cow was about to… you know…"

Xuru blinked and looked back at the remote. It seemed to shuffle about slightly as if something was dropping on it.

"Awwww… crap…" she said. She then started to giggle.

"Well, it's not like it's really there," Puruu noted. She then noticed that her friend was now nearly bent over laughing. She looked at the others who were all looking at her with puzzled expressions.

"Is there something to be laughing about?" Wolfwood questioned.

"Oh! Make it stop!" was all Xuru could say. She was now pounding the ground.

Puruu looked at her closely and noticed the demon's tail seemingly being pulled and dropped by some unseen force. Its short stubby fur would move back and forth. Puruu shifted herself slightly to enter the normal reality of The Source and found that the cow was now licking Xuru's appendage.

"Shoo! SHOO!" she yelled from the ether. The cow leapt up and darted for the lower field where the other bovines were. Puruu then looked at the pile it had left behind. She waved her hand and the offensive mound vanished. She then returned to the others. There she found Xuru growling at her feet.

"I'll make HAMBURGER out of that cow!" she snarled as she checked her tail for any damage.

"Interesting," Puruu said as she rubbed her chin. "Why did that cow see your tail like that?"

"I don't know, and I don't CARE!" the demoness huffed as she reached for the remote, then quickly drew back and looked back at her partner.

Puruu continued to contemplate the reason why a cow could see them, or at least Xuru's tail. She nodded to her that it was safe to pick up the device. Xuru quickly snatched it.

"Okay, now that we're back to the remote, what now?" Wolfwood asked looking back at Frank Dartmouth.

"Well first of all, let's slowly roll this little drama," Xuru grinned as she spun the jog-shuttle on the device in her hand.

Dartmouth could now be seen taking a bead with his long-range rifle. Over at the corral, the younger Wolfwood was just appearing from behind the house.

"Honey, what's that man doing in the grass?" Millie asked as he pulled his trigger. Xuru stopped spinning the shuttle and backed it up. The bullet returned to the muzzle of the rifle.

"Move it forwards just a hair," N'ya said as he examined the end of the gun. Xuru crept the dial slightly until a flash of flame stuck out of the barrel making the Kuroneko jump back a bit. She held it just as the bullet started out.

"You're the expert marksman here," Burnside said to Vash. "Think you can redirect his shot?"

Vash was looking a bit confused with what they were doing at first. It was when he noticed the younger Wolfwood over by the buildings that he realized just what was going on. He grabbed the Preacher that was with them aside apologizing to his wife that he needed to talk to him in private.

"Does she know anything about this?" Vash yelped as quietly as he could.

"Of course not!" Wolfwood snapped then returned a grin to Millie. He slowly returned to looking at Vash as he continued, "Do you think I'm out of my mind? This is going to be one of the bloodiest days here in Oklahoma!"

Now Vash was looking over at Millie and grinning. He slipped back down so that Wolfwood hid him from her again. "How bad?" he asked him. Xuru and Puruu leaned in to listen.

Wolfwood sighed. "There's going to be four bodies by the time this day is through… I got three of them… I have no idea how the forth one…"

Vash nearly exploded if Puruu had not placed her hand over his mouth. "Dead!?" he mumbled through her fingers.

Wolfwood glared at his friend. "It was for the defense of this family," he growled. "Look at him! Does he look like he's full of remorse or worry over what he's about to do?"

Vash looked at the rifleman on the ground and his intended target. He glanced at the Goddess-in-Training to release his mouth. He walked over to the prone man and examined the flare from his gun. "What's he suppose to hit with this shot?" he asked.

Wolfwood gestured towards the corral. "Third post from the far end," he said.

Vash leaned down in front of the rifle and eyeballed the line of flight. "Tricky shot," he said. "Downright impossible from this line of site… too high, and he'll get your… thing… horse I think they call it…" He placed his index finger on the front of the barrel and swayed it about slightly. "There… that should hit the post."

"The TOP of the post," Wolfwood reminded him.

Vash said "Ah," and pulled the gun up just a touch. "Let her go!"

"Wait a minute!" Wolfwood said as Xuru started to spin the dial on the shuttle. The bullet continued out then stopped a few yards away. "Aren't we forgetting something?" he grinned.

"Umm…" she replied with a blank look on her face. "What?"

Wolfwood turned beet red and pointed a shaking finger at his younger self. "Aren't I suppose to be on my face by now?" he steamed.

"On your face honey?" Millie asked with a confused look. She looked back at the corral area and jumped slightly making the chicken squawk in her arms again. "Oh no, what day is this?"

Wolfwood grimaced, fearful that his attempt at keeping Millie out of the loop had failed miserably. He now bore the look of a deer stunned in the headlights of an onrushing truck.

"What DAY is this?" she repeated. "Please tell me! Tell me this isn't May 25th, 1895?"

Xuru looked at the remote and at the little digital screen that was flashing that very date across its face. She shrugged and said "Ummm, yes… yes it is…"

"Oh mercy!" Millie gasped. She looked back at the house, which surprised Wolfwood – he expected her to blow up on him for not telling her. But she continued to stare at the structure. She then bolted for it with the chicken now howling in her arms.

"Err, umm, will she be able to reach the house without us moving with her?" Vash asked.

"As long as she doesn't hit anything," Burnside grumbled. "We'd best follow her."

Millie ran past the still form of the egg-covered Wolfwood and made the turn around the face of the cabin. She stepped up to the door and saw herself cradling her youngest daughter with a smile on her face. She was looking at a bucket of eggs that were under water waiting a cleaning.

"Oh god!" she said clutching her hands to her face and making the chicken nearly gag. She heard the footsteps of her husband come up behind her. "It is that day, isn't it?" she asked him.

"I'm sorry Miss Millie, it's my fault," Xuru said from behind Wolfwood. "I'm doing an interview with your husband about this day, and things seemed to have gotten out of hand…"

She looked back at herself and the baby she was cradling. She touched the child's head and sighed. She turned to face them again and found Vash standing to the rear. She looked down and shook a little.

"Honey?" Wolfwood said. She walked around him and sat down on the porch chair.

"I'm fine," she said in a quivering voice. "You do what you must, please. I'll… I'll just wait here…"

"Chickie?" Wolfwood placed his hand on her shoulder.

"JUST DO IT!" she finally exploded. Wolfwood stepped back and snapped an angry look at the Junior-Demon."

"AND DON'T YOU DARE BLAME HER!" Millie added. Wolfwood looked back at her as if she had lost her mind.

"Nicholas D. Wolfwood, just do it!" she snapped before he could complain.

"Okay then," Burnside said to break the tension, "let's go trip Wolfwood." He started dragging everyone back around the cabin. Vash stayed momentarily staring at the ex-Insurance Girl."

"You going to be okay?" he asked her.

Millie wiped her eyes. "Yes," she sprightly said hiding her fears. "Please Mr. Vash, go help them, I'll be fine."

He nodded and did so. She sighed and looked at the roof of the porch.

"Why now?" she asked no one in particular.

"Because, students can be too inquisitive, why else?"

She looked beside herself and found Kinza seated on the wooden planking of the porch whittling a stick.

"Why Mr. Fuzzy?" she asked the spirit. "Why weren't you there?"

"What… on the 25th of May of 1895?" he asked as he leaned back against the building. "I was on assignment on another level that day… though I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have mattered…"

"Wouldn't have mattered?" she whispered. "What do you mean?"

He sighed. "Millie dear, you have to understand, the Observers Corps can not be the police for everything. If we prevented everything that happened to you and your family, suspicions would arise on just how lucky this family had it. Believe me it's just as hard on us as it is on you…"

"Like you and Lexy?" she asked.

Kinza nodded as he continued to slit chips off the stick he was whittling on. "Like me and Lexy, and Thomas… god what I went through with Thomas was enough…" He muttered to himself some strange Tomassamassian swear.

Millie stroked the chicken and pondered its plumage. "But still, this day of all days…"

"This day indeed," he said.

She looked down at him. "You do know what happens today, right?"

"Yup," he replied.

"Everything?"

He looked up at her, nodded and quietly said, "Everything."

Millie's eyes grew wide. "Oh my god," she said with trepidation, "you knew?"

Kinza scowled. "Millie, it was for the safety of the family. I would have done the same."

"Yes, but…" was all she got out when a cheer came up from the gang around the side of the house. She noticed the fence post splintering across the grass and dirt. She was about to get up and see what was going on when her other self stepped out of the cabin to see what had happened.

"Honey! Get back in the house! Bar the door!" she heard the Prairie Wolfwood say to her younger self. The mother spun about and ran with the baby into the cabin and slammed the door on Millie and the spirit of her friend. She slowly opened it again and entered the building.

The mother looked back at the door and slammed it again. She was panting hard, the baby swathed in her long hair as she darted about looking for shelter for her. Millie stood back in the corner as Kinza stepped through the wall and watched. The baby was wrapped in a light towel, placed in a blanket then laid into the washbasin which was then slid into the closet.

"That was a good idea," Kinza said he stood beside Millie. The mother then stopped moving. He looked out the side window and saw that Xuru had once again paused the events with her remote. "Silly girl," he laughed.

In the paddock area, the egg-covered Wolfwood was getting to his feet, his gun drawn, running towards the chicken coop on the back of his house. The moment had been stopped on the account that he was about to be struck down again by one of Frank's rounds. The Reverend was pacing back and forth tapping his head trying to remember what he had done then.

"I'm sure I simply dove for the back side of the coop, because I remember seeing the second man as soon as I did."

Vash looked back towards Dartmouth's position and distinctively saw the shaft of a rifle jutting out of the tall grass just up hill of the first gunman's position.

"Ah yes, I see," he said. "And the third one?"

Wolfwood looked back behind the group. "The third one was from the back side of the shed," he said as he gestured to the structure that made up the back of the corral. "Betsy and Diamond Mane warn me of him."

"And the forth?" Burnside asked.

Wolfwood looked to their right, on the downhill slope next to the house. "The Army boys found him after all this played out… I thought at the time that he was struck by accident by the second guy out there when I shot him."

Vash grimaced at those words. Burnside nudged him and reminded him "This is history son, not much to be done but make sure it happens as it did."

"Even if we're the reason it's happening like this?" Vash retorted. Xuru groaned. Vash settled and held his hands up. "History, that's all it is!" he repeated. "Well then, we'll have to redirect this bullet then." He walked out to where Dartmouth was laying and waved to have the bullet returned to the gun by the junior-demon.

"It is very strange looking at myself like this," Millie said as she stepped around her former self. She examined the horror on her own face and remembered the thought of possibly loosing both people she loved the most in life that day. She watched as the Oklahoma woman slowly backed up slightly in time with the remote's commands.

"When does she…" Kinza asked.

"Soon… very soon," Millie said. She looked out the window on the south side of the house and saw the stray forth gunman. "Soon…"

Vash and N'ya examined the shot coming from Frank Dartmouth. "Where's this one supposed to go?" Vash yelled.

"Back of the coop, right in front of me," Wolfwood directed. "As a matter of fact, it strikes this knot in the planking…"

"Got it!" Vash called. He stood up and looked at the overall layout of the gunfight. "These guys didn't realize just who they were up against, did they?" he asked the cat. "It may have been a perfect ambush, but Nicholas D. Wolfwood would have won this easily, right?"

N'ya sighed. "Not to put down the Reverend's gun-playing abilities, but truth be told, he had not shot a gun in anger at this point for some time."

Vash snorted. Wolfwood rusty? With his family at stake?

He looked downhill and saw the forth gunman.

Possibly. He decided to wait to see what would happen with that one.

"It becomes a real gunfight after this shot," Wolfwood said. "We'd best get out of the way." He shooed everyone up the hill beside the corral in an area that he was pretty sure that the bullets wouldn't hit anyone.

Xuru turned the shuttle on her remote to slow advance and started to spin the jog. Dartmouth shot his arrant bullet which knocked the knot out cleanly.

Inside the shack, the bullet slowly zipped by the Mother by only inches and impaled itself in the ceiling joist over the doorway. Kinza looked at Millie, who had sat down in the rocking chair. She was almost glassy-eyed as she watched herself react to the bullet. Mother Millie dove for under the window covering her head as a small amount of splinters scattered across the room. Outside, Dartmouth and the second gunman were now peppering the area. The past Wolfwood was behind a water barrel which was starting to spray all over from the holes it was taking.

"Is that when you called us?" Burnside asked as he saw that the younger Wolfwood was reaching for his com unit.

"Yea," Wolfwood said as he wiped his forehead. "The cavalry was a few hours down the road, and transmats were unavailable since there weren't any ships in orbit at the time."

Vash studied the slowed gunfight. He saw every bullet, every trajectory, every near miss. He tossed a stone that redirected a bullet he saw that was going to be much too close to the Wolfwood of this time if he was to come out of this without a scratch.

"You _are_ supposed to come out of this without a scratch, right?" he asked the Wolfwood beside him.

The preacher snapped an angry look at him then rethought that expression. "Um, no… I wasn't hit," he said as he scratched his head. He was going to mention something else when the gunplay stopped, as did all the movement in front of them. He looked over at Xuru. She was blowing on one of her claws.

"Ow, that smarts!" she complained from the rapid spinning of the jog-shuttle. Vash took that moment to re-examine the results of this first part of the skirmish.

"Looks like you winged Dartmouth at this point," he commented as he saw the gunman had a bloodied arm. "The guy coming down the hill is about to get his…" He stared at the bullet that was heading for the man. He had an urge to move it away sweeping through him.

"Vash…" Burnside warned. "That's a no – no… remember – History's Daggers."

"You Observers seem to like to quote that line a great deal," he said as he started back towards the group. It was then that he noticed something that made him stop. He made a double take, making sure what he had seen was true - then he continued.

"Everything okay?" Puruu asked. "You looked like you had seen something there."

"Hahaa! Nope! Nothing at all!" Vash cackled. The two students looked at him with puzzled expressions.

"Don't worry ladies," the Kuroneko noted, "he always acts like that…" N'ya scampered towards the cabin.

"…when he's trying to hide something," he mumbled to himself as he entered the side of the structure.

"I wish I could do that," Vash said as he watched.

Kinza and Millie had watched the mother crawl across the room during the height of the gun battle and enter the pantry. Even as bullets punched holes in the slatted walls, she managed to get to the gun closet and remove the rifle it contained.

"I can't believe I did that," Millie sat nearly stupefied.

"Personally, I'd like to know how you knew about the clothes closet," Kinza said.

"Huh?" she asked a bit confused as her younger self froze at the open window.

"You put baby Meryl in the clothing closet," the Tomassamassa noted. "I reinforced that back wall with rock maple behind the cedar wall slats. It's as close to bullet-proof as you can get."

"Really?" she asked looking at the closet. "I put her in the washbasin for that reason…"

Kinza shrugged. "Ah… that too…"

Xuru started the spinning on the shuttle again. The group watched as the second gunman fell forwards, his gun going off as he fell.

"That should have been when that one down the hill got his," Wolfwood said as he watched his former self come out from behind the barrel and fire the last shot at Dartmouth with his freshly reloaded revolver. He started to move to one side to get a clear sight down the hill.

Vash looked to the side of the corral. "Hey, is that your third man?" he said quickly getting Wolfwood's attention.

"Ah, yes… this should be just a second…" he said as he looked back. "There… the horses should be getting my attention…"

The two animals were slowly prancing and their time-dilated nays and whinnies could be heard. The Wolfwood in their world heard the noise and turned quickly and fired.

Vash heard two shots – practically simultaneously fired.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two bodies fall.

Kinza nodded. "Had to be done." He turned towards Millie. "There wasn't any choice to be made, m'am… did you want to be a widow?"

Millie dropped her head much like her younger self did. They broke into tears.

Vash stepped up to Xuru and placed his hand on her shoulder. He leaned down and quietly told her, "Let it play."

"Huh?" she said, still spinning the shuttle.

"Let it play," he repeated. "Let time flow for about… three minutes, won't you?"

"Why?" Puruu asked making sure her voice was not overheard.

"Trust me," Vash said. "It will be for the best."

Millie raised her head as she heard the normal sounds of herself sobbing. She saw the mother stumble to her feet, the rifle held at arm's length as if it had just tainted her. She did cock it again, ejecting the spent shell which rang as it bounced across the floor. She ran back into the pantry and returned empty-handed. She reached down to pick up the casing, but dropped it again as she found it still quite hot. She looked panicked as she looked about the room for something to handle the bullet.

A hole in the floor where a knot had been near the edge of a board greeted her eyes. She quickly used the side of her shoe to tap the shell to it and drop it down into the cold cellar. She then rushed to the closet and checked on Meryl. The baby had slept through the whole ordeal.

Mother and daughter froze again as N'ya stepped through the pantry door and sat beside them. "Nice pair," he said. "Well done, m'lady!"

Millie stood up and shook. "Is it? Is it really?" she said quivering. "I took a life! Mr. Vash always said that it was wrong to take anyone's life! Mr. Vash…" She broke down sobbing. The chicken dropped to the ground and scampered about.

"Millie, there was no choice," Kinza said as he kneeled beside her.

She looked up and attempted to fall over his shoulder, but found herself falling through his ethereal self. She then felt his paw on her head as he concentrated on it being sold enough to be there with her.

"It's so hard, Mr. Fuzzy," she whimpered as she grasped the hand. "I know that I needed to do that, but I can understand Mr. Vash's point of view as well…"

The door slowly opened. Millie and Kinza looked up and saw Vash standing there with Puruu and Xuru behind him. She quickly sat up and fiddled with her fingers nervously.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Xuru asked the ghost beside her.

"Huh? Who are you talking to?" Vash asked.

Puruu looked at the Tomassamassa. "Kinza… he's right there beside Millie…"

"He can't see me," the furry officer said as he stood up. He then looked as if he was having a headache. He then appeared to Vash, but became translucent to Millie.

"Whoa!" Vash said. "Not bad for a dead guy!"

"Heh, frequency modulation… can't beat it!" Kinza winked. "That's why Knives couldn't see me it seems… Plants and humans do have some things uncommon to each other… the spectral range they can see for one thing… one of the reasons why you can track bullets like you do." He scratched the back of his head and laughed. "Never make a ghost of a person with a scientific background I guess!"

Vash smiled but then became serious when he saw Millie. He got down on his knee and bowed to her.

"Can you ever forgive me?" he told her. Millie wasn't expecting that. She was expecting him to tell her that it was okay, that she had done what had to be done.

"Ea?" Kinza asked.

"Nyaa?" the Kuroneko mused.

"I didn't mean it, really," Vash started to cry. "I redirected one of the gunmen's shots and mistakenly hit the guy down the hill…"

Millie sat back, suddenly not knowing what was going on. She nearly placed her hand on his back to sooth him but didn't know if she should.

"But Mr. Vash… it's okay, you didn't do it! I did!" she told him. "I did it!"

Vash shook his head. "No… no you didn't… Your shot hit the ground at his feet… It stopped him momentarily… if he hadn't stopped, he wouldn't have been hit! Oh Miss Millie, I took another life!"

Millie looked at him, not knowing if to hug him or break down crying herself. She fell over his back and joined him.

N'ya sat down with a thud and looked confused. "Umm, but… truth be told…"

Kinza shook his head and placed his finger to his mouth. He winked and gestured the cat to follow him. They joined the goddess and demon on the porch. There he saw Wolfwood and Burnside standing over by the corral post. Wolfwood looked a bit shocked and was shaking his head.

Vash stepped out wiping his tears. He nodded to Puruu and Xuru to enter as he stepped over towards the two men.

"Did you fix it?" Burnside asked.

Vash nodded. "It is best for her to think I did it rather than she did… after all, I have done it before…"

Wolfwood planted his hand on his friend's shoulder and shook him. "You're too much, you know that?"

Kinza looked back at the shack. "Maybe," he said. "But she's also pretty smart…"

Wolfwood and Burnside looked down on the Tomassamassa. "What's he doing here?" they asked.

"Ah… yes…" he smirked.

Millie dusted herself off as she stood up and wiped her face. She looked at Puruu and Xuru and smiled weakly.

"He didn't have to do that," she said to them as they held their breaths. Puruu covered her mouth at the thought of what she was saying. "I've handled guns all my life. I know when I shoot someone."

Xuru smiled. "Rocking!" she said as she produced her papers and scribbled notes down. Puruu slowly looked at her friend and almost reluctantly had to do the same.

Millie saw how the Goddess-in-Training looked. She placed her hand on her arm and surrounded herself around her. It was then that Xuru realized just how stupid she had just been.

Puruu cried over she shoulder for the person she held in her arms. Her pad and pen clattered to the floor as they held one another.

"Shhh… shhh… Puruu, it is okay," Millie said. "As my daddy always told me, there's no such thing as a perfect human. 'Course, the last time he told me that was when he was disowning me for having a child out of wedlock…"

Puruu nodded and pulled back slightly. "I know… I know… but other than Rem, you were… you were…"

Millie placed her finger on her mouth to hush her. "Even Rem isn't perfect. Remember that. I think even she would tell you that."

"Heh, she has," Xuru said as she rolled her eyes. "The suicide attempt, the soup made of boiled sox, painting her mother's car when she was six years old…"

Millie squirreled up her nose. "A soup made up of boiled sox?"

"Dirty old sox! That nasty Ricky Lester next door never bothered her again!" Xuru grinned.

Millie started to giggle. Puruu couldn't help but join her.

Wolfwood looked at Xuru with his fists hard to his hips as the ladies finally stepped out of the cabin. "Can we go now?" he asked the demon.

Xuru grinned and snapped her fingers. They left the past for whatever they were to find in The Source, leaving those behind to go on with their lives.

Tolefson and his men rounded the bend at a full run. "Ike, secure that body! Drake, take your men and circle up the west side of the property! NICK!?"

"Tolly!" Wolfwood called as he saw the uniformed men of the U.S. Army squad running about. "Great to see you!"

Tolefson patted him on the shoulder. "You'd best get in there and see if Millie's okay," he told him. "We'll clean up out here."

Wolfwood grinned and ran back up to the house.

Ike trotted up to his commander and saluted. "Looks like he got them all," he reported. "That one there is odd though."

"Why is that?" Tolefson asked as they stepped over to the body.

"He's been hit twice," Ike noted. "The wound to his leg is a rifle shot, and the one that killed him in his chest is a standard pistol wound… wasn't Wolfwood only armed with a pistol?"

"Where'd the rifle shot come from?" Tolefson pondered. His communicator beeped and he popped it open. "Yes sir?"

"Tolly, there is only one wound on that body, understand?" the voice of North said. "Directive 10."

Tolefson nodded. "Understood sir, directive 10. Which shot is it?"

North sighed and looked down the hill. "Mine," he said. He holstered his gun and headed for the duck blind he had been in.

**-------------------------------------------------**

The group materialized back in The Source. There they found not the Oklahoma that Millie had constructed from her memories, but a lone tree.

It was wilting, and little of the leaves were left on it. Underneath sat a gray haired woman who looked up at them with deep brown sad eyes.

"Rem?" Vash asked. "Rem, is that you?"

The sadness left her eyes. Now anger swelled – hate – maddening hatred as her hair of silver began to swirl about her. "YOU!" she shouted. "HOW DARE YOU DESECRATE THIS HOLY FIELD OF HONOR!?"

Oddly, it wasn't Vash she seemed to be yelling at. It seemed to be Burnside.

N'ya looked at her with a puzzled expression. "I'd say this was a catnip hallucination, but no… truth be told, you are Rem, and that is her tree there…"

"But time isn't supposed to matter here, even if it changes," Burnside said as he stepped back from the now standing old woman. "What have I done to get this lumped on me?"

"You… you OBSERVER!" she shrieked. "YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! YOU KILLED MY VASH! YOU KILLED MY KNIVES! YOU KILLED EVERYONE!"

Burnside held up a readout box as he tried to re-associate himself to his readings. "The time stream is still flowing between Deneb One and Earth, so I would say there are still some things for us to do in your past Wolfwood."

"This is becoming some interview," Xuru said as she tapped the remote. "What's different this time?"

Burnside stared at the readings and swallowed. "Its… its Deneb One…"

"GUNSMOKE!" Rem shouted. "CALL IT BY ITS REAL NAME!"

"Rem! Rem! Stop it! It's me, Vash!" he said as he held the woman back.

"You're not Vash!" she grumbled. "He died when Gunsmoke died. That Observer's ship, you know… that BIG one… it blew up when the Second Moon was destroyed."

"Forrestal?" Burnside asked. "She wasn't anywhere near the beam that Janus sent up to blow up the Second Moon! Only the Nelson was destroyed."

Rem shook her head. "No, she was crippled, and when she fell into the atmosphere, she blew up. What was she powered with, huh? What WAS IT!? It ripped the surface of the planet clean! It tore the air out into space! It destroyed everything!"

"Great… we have to go back and fix something else now?" Wolfwood snarled. "When and where?"

"Umm, I don't know," Xuru squirmed as the Reverend glared at her. "The next time I was going to ask you about was… oh Hades…"

Puruu looked at the remote and gasped. "Xuru, you weren't!"

The Junior-demon snapped a look at her partner. "Well, you sure weren't going to ask them!"

"Out of respect I wasn't!" Puruu shot back.

"And what was it the teacher said!?" Xuru countered. "Some questions might be difficult to ask, but they must be asked!? What am I suppose to do, ignore it!?"

Millie clung to her husband's shoulder. "What day is it?" she asked, a cold tone in her voice quieting the bickering between the two girls.

" June 10th, 1916," Burnside said. Xuru and Puruu stared at him slack-jawed. "That's where the next anomaly goes to."

Vash saw an expression roll over his friend's faces he never thought he'd ever see. Millie cringed behind Wolfwood, and utter hatred rolled over his.

"This interview is over," he said. "You two just flunked."

"Nick, what is it?" Vash asked cautiously not wanting to blow this volcano that was gurgling before him.

"Jerry," was all he said as he and Millie walked past the Goddess-in-Training and the Junior-Demon. "That was the day our son Jerry was killed. We aren't going."

"I'm afraid that isn't possible," they heard. "You see, if you don't go, I'll make you go."

Wolfwood turned and saw North standing behind them all. "You'll what?" he asked his friend.

"Sorry, but the time line is important here," North said. "Unless you all move on with your journey, this timeline will stay, those of you who weren't supposed to be here will vanish, and the universe will belong to D'two."

"D'TWO!?" Vash yelled. "He was killed! And it was Knives who was controlling him!"

North shook his head. "Knives was killed by the blast, releasing D'two from his control. He thus managed to escape the holocaust by launching off the planet in his sphere. Those on the Fifth Moon were also lost when the debris of the Second Moon smashed their ships. Without anyone to stop him, D'two has become the dominant force out there, destroying humanity where he can. He should be within the solar system of Earth in about a month."

"How are you here then?" Wolfwood asked. "Didn't you die with the planet?"

Kinza stepped over to his commander. "No, he's not really here, just like me. We're both spirits."

"As are these," North said ad he swept his hand back and many more bodies appeared, including Millie and Meryl in the forefront. "The timelines are about to collide Nicholas. Do you really want them to end like this?"

"Crap," the Reverend said. He looked back at Xuru and huffed. "You sure you can handle it right this time?"

"Other than bringing along a Plant the last time, I didn't do anything wrong THAT time," she shot back.

Vash patted him on the shoulder. "Looks like this is all your fault, buddy!"

Wolfwood steamed. "Let's make this a mutual everyone's at fault situation, okay!?" he snapped. "Come on, let's do it! Is there any idea what we're supposed to do?"

North nodded. "In this timeline we are in, Jerry lives."

Wolfwood stared at him. "He what?"

Xuru pressed the play button and they vanished.

oOo

**Next Episode**

**_I am a father_**

**_In the past I saw my second son die in my wife's arms_**

**_Why must I relive this?_**

**_Dear god, a father should never bury his own son_**

**_Let alone, have to choose_**

**_Son_**

**_Future_**

**_Or Family…_**

**_Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD – THE _****_OKLAHOMA_****_ YEARS_**

**_Chapter Six - Interview with Wolfwood – Part 2 – Jerry_**

**_Please god, not again…_**

North, Tolefson, Puruu, Xuru, Nightwatch (Diamond Mane), The Observers, Kinza, UNS Forrestal ©2004 DMS – Used with Permission

N'ya, Burnside ©2004 S. Nordwall – Used with Permission

Gamilons ©2004 Sunbow Productions, Voyager Entertainment, Yoshinobu Nishizaki, Rieji Matsumoto

Romulans ©2004 Paramount Pictures Corporation

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2004 Yasuhiro Nightow

All characters from TRIGUN: MOON CHILD ©2004 The MOON CHILD Project/DMS – Used with Permission

©2004 The MOON CHILD Project II/Denivan Media Services


	6. Int w Wolfwood ¤ P2 ¤ Jerry

TRIGUN: MOON CHILD  
**THE OKLAHOMA** **YEARS  
**Based on "Distant Lives" (FFN #3519328/9) from Trigun: Moon Child

**Chapter Six  
Interview With Wolfwood**

**Part 2 **

**Jerry  
**By R. A. Stott

"I am seriously going to kick some tail."

_**Wednesday, June 7**__**th**__**, 1916**_

"Gerald Edward Saverem, get your tail up here right now!"

The two boys and the girl flinched as the shout of one of their names was siren across the field of wheat in the hot early summer heat of the Oklahoma prairie.

"Vot did you do now Jerry?" the girl asked in her Scandinavian accent.

The mop-headed boy shrugged. Then he got a look of shock then surprise then worry, all in the space of a second.

"Hey, do that again squirt," his older brother kidded him. "I don't think even Charlie Chaplin could have done that in such a short time!"

"You're not helping Dave," Jerry said as he rubbed his head. "Darn it! I knew I was supposed to be doing something!"

"Do you need any help?" the sprightly young girl asked. Jerry kissed her and shook his head.

"No, I have to do this…" he said as he stood up and headed for the house. His mother instinctively spun about and looked squarely at him as he trudged through the field.

"Gretchen!" she shouted, making the girl leap up. "You too David!"

"What did I do?" Dave asked as he brushed off his Army uniform.

"You delayed your brother again!" she told him as they too now poked out of the wheat. "You know that we have to get this cart of milk and eggs down to the processors by noon!" She shook her head as she watched him brush the dust off his pants. "Honestly, sitting in the field in your uniform as well!"

"I'm sorry mother," David said as he dragged his eyes along the ground.

Millie huffed and swatted his rear as he passed her with her towel she was carrying. "Now how is he going to get into the army as well if you ruin his chances by making him late all the time?" She then looked at the girl as she was coming up next for her scolding.

"Gretchen dear, could you go tell your brothers that Jerry will be ready to take the load in a few minutes?" she asked her in a more kindly manner.

"Yes m'am!" she said as she sprinted off towards the barn. David and Jerry just gawked as she got off Scott free.

"Why does she get special treatment?" David complained as he rubbed his slightly warmed tail.

"She's not officially family yet, now is she?" Millie barked back at the two of them. "And just when ARE you going to pop the question, young man?" she now directed to Jerry. "When my big - big brother was your age he had already been married twice!"

She stopped for a moment and pondered that. "You know, that's not exactly a good thing now is it?" she wondered aloud as the boys fell backwards.

It would have been a statement that either Xuru or Puruu would have written something down on, but the seriousness of this interview was going to mean best leave well enough alone and just watch what transpires.

"Your observational powers always amazed me, Millie," Vash noted as the group watched the boys and their mother walk away towards the barn area. David was soon to be off to camp again, having had a three-day pass. He was waiting for his ride back to Fort Supply.

"Where are you?" Burnside asked Wolfwood not seeing the priest anywhere.

Wolfwood had been tromping about in a funk. He looked at his watch then looked at the surroundings then GLARED at the demon, which made her wilt a bit.

He found the back of his head being smacked.

"Stop that!" his wife ordered as she stepped over and comforted the girls.

"But… but she…" he complained.

"…Had nothing to do with this," the spirit of Kinza said.

"Pardon me!?" the reverend shouted.

Burnside shook his head. "Think about it Nick," he said. "What would have happened if we had not started this?"

"History would have unraveled," Vash explained which caught his friend by surprise. "We would have eventually had to come back here anyway to do whatever would need to be done." He looked at him eye to eye. "Hard as this is, it has to be done."

"I'm sorry… I am truly sorry," Xuru said breaking down in tears, which was another thing unexpected to the priest. He found himself coming over to the demon child and comforting her – something he would have hardly done just a few minutes before. "If I had known… if I had known…"

"You would have had to do it anyway," Kinza stated in a quiet voice. She looked over Wolfwood's shoulder at him.

"History's Daggers, ea?" she said as she wiped a tear.

Kinza smirked. "Sabrina Natsumi knew what she was talking about**¤**," he said while scratching his cheek. He looked off to his right and saw the wagon with Jerry coming around the corral towards the driveway down to the main road. "Get ready – here comes our ride."

"Are you sure we can ride that thing without hitting something?" Vash asked as he rubbed where he had blindly walked into something solid earlier that was hidden to them by the projection they now found themselves in.

Burnside looked at a scanner. "I don't think we have to worry about that here," he said. "When we arrived at Rem's tree, we had a new reality to worry about. And the tree would be where the chapel is over there."

"That means our home is gone?" Millie asked.

"Only temporarily," Burnside said. "As soon as we finish with all this, your home will be back where you left it."

Millie watched her second son as he climbed down off the buckboard. "What about our children? I – I mean the ones in The Source? What about them?" she asked almost in a daze.

Puruu looked back. "Oh my!" she exclaimed. "I'll be right back!" She then vanished.

The others climbed aboard the parked wagon as Jerry entered the home to get some transfer papers. They sat on the bails of hay that were being used to separate the contents. Puruu reappeared with a look of worry on her face.

"Did you find them?" Millie asked as she clung to her husband's arm.

Puruu gave her a weak smile. "They are being cared for by Mr. North," she said. "They were a little frightened, but otherwise, they are handling it well."

Wolfwood stared at her. "Puruu, North was a spirit back there…"

The Goddess-in-Training looked down and nodded. "So are they for the time being," she said.

The air just seemed to exhaust out of Nicholas and Millie. Xuru clutched the remote to her face.

The ride along the trail south was quiet. Millie and Nicholas sat silently facing the rear, never looking around at the boy driving the wagon up front. Vash, who was sitting on the bail directly behind Jerry, sat scrutinizing the lad and his father.

"He certainly has your face," he said to Wolfwood. Nicholas turned and looked at his friend, then glanced at his son. "That classic Wolfwood hook to his nose and all…"

"But he has his mother's hair," the reverend said as a small smile passed over his face. "You know, seeing him like this, doing his chores, having fun with Gretchen… it makes me want to see some of his earlier days… before these ugly ones we're about to go through…"

"A parent always wants to see their child at their prime," Kinza noted. "It is just the way it is – to be a parent… you see, that's what the children don't realize… They always think they have to deal with the joys and heartaches alone. But in reality, the parents are the ones that take the brunt of it. They live it with them, even if they don't show it… and the kids don't realize it until they're parents themselves."

"That's when the first parents get to gloat about it as grandparents," Burnside cracked. He looked over at the girls. "Are you writing this down?"

Xuru and Puruu only looked at their feet and shook their heads.

"Well, you'd better," he advised. "We're not going through this again just so you two can retake your notes!"

Millie leaned forwards. "By the way," she asked, "just what is the topic of your paper?"

Xuru lowered the remote and fumbled with it between her knees. "The class is on the Human Condition, and the report is on the Saverem family of course…"

Millie nodded. "Well then, you would have had to have reported on things like this anyway, right?"

Xuru looked over at her as she gave her one of her patented cheery rosy smiles.

"How do you do that?" she asked Millie. "How do you go from the edge of despair to happy bubbly like that?"

Wolfwood shook his wife. "That is the mystery of the ages my dear," he said as he rocked her. "My Chickie could see the bright side of a tornado, given the right situation."

"It's that Millie magic!" Vash exclaimed. Everyone looked at him with skeptical eyes. "Okay, maybe not…" he groused as he rubbed his head.

"Uh oh, this should be good," they heard. Kinza was ducking down behind the bails and the milk buckets. His form was actually standing through the giant metal bottles as he seemed to be hiding from someone.

"Ah," noted Burnside as he looked ahead of them. "The AmEx truck. You're driving today?"

The spirit nodded. "And seeing that I'm not totally with myself here in this wagon, I don't want my earlier self to sense me."

The loud cranky truck ground by, as the odd little driver named Tom waved to the boy in the buckboard. Everyone watched as it continued up the road.

The driver suddenly popped his head out the side of the van and looked back just as Kinza raised his head.

"Uh oh… uh… hi!" he grinned and twiddled his fingers.

"Hi-ooo!" Vash added.

"Hey there, Tom!" Millie exclaimed.

A furry paw then stuck out of the cab of the truck and yanked the head back in. Everyone looked back at the Tomassamassa as he gawked at himself fighting with his human suit.

"Geeze," he said, "was this THAT time?" he chuckled. "We had problems with those cloaking suits all the time… and Tom there was never quite the same after Lexy abused him…"

Wolfwood rolled his eyes remembering the incident where Kinza had saved his daughter Alexis using the Tom cloaking field as a shield to keep her warm by. Millie just looked confused.

"I don't get it," she said.

Kinza shook his paw at her. "Never mind – it's a long story…"

Just then everyone found themselves being jostled and bounced about. Vash and Wolfwood instinctively grabbed hold of a sturdy section of the wagon to steady themselves in case they needed to act. When they looked ahead, they saw one of the horses rearing up as Jerry tried to settle it down and keep the other one from following.

"WHOA DAISY! WHOA GIRL!" he shouted as he whipped the reins about and brought the animal to order. As it came back down, the two men in the buckboard saw a young man in the road only a few feet ahead of them. He had obviously come out from behind the bushes and startled the horse and was still trying to do so.

"Chip Dartmouth!" Millie exclaimed. "That rascal!" An angry look crossed her face as Puruu and Xuru watched clutching each other. It took the junior demon a moment of juggling to slap her finger down on the pause button on the remote.

"Who!?" she asked aloud. "Is he…"

"Frank Dartmouth's son, yes," Nicholas growled as he recounted the man who had attacked him in 1895. "I never knew Jerry had a run in with him on this day!"

Vash stepped around to the front of the still horses and took a gander at the young man. "Ugly dude, that's for sure… took after his father did he?"

Wolfwood joined him looking at Chip Dartmouth. "Surly bunch these Dartmouths, and Chip was the worst. He never amounted to much… blamed me for the death of his father, so we were pretty much his targets for most of his life…"

Vash noticed that his friend was shaking, and a tear was rolling down his face. He came over and snatched him away from the figure in front of him just as he was about to take a swing at it.

"You can't do that!" he shouted as he spun the reverend about. He found him with his head down and nearly had to hold him from collapsing to the ground. "Wolfwood, what is it?"

Nicholas glanced up at Millie and turned away so that she didn't see his face. "Chip Dartmouth is who shot my son," he whispered shaking.

He shook his head, grabbing Vash's shirt lapels and planting his head against his friend's chest. Vash was about to place his hand on his back when the reverend's head snapped up nearly clobbering him in the chin. He then found himself unceremoniously dumped on the ground as Wolfwood took a few staggering steps back up the path.

"Kinza… KINZA… WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING!?" he bellowed as he pointed at the AmEx van which was still only a few yards down the road.

"Equipment failure, remember?" Burnside shot back in defense of the spirit.

"Well, it wasn't like I had not noticed," Kinza added as he scratched his nose. "But since someone froze this little interlude just before I reported in…"

Xuru blinked at him and again fumbled with the remote to hit the play button.

"Damn it Dartmouth! What's the idea of hiding in those bushes!?" shouted Jerry as he finished settling the horses.

"Just thought I'd remind you, Saverem," the unkempt young man said in a slightly sloshed stupor, "that your life is mine! I'll make your family pay…"

"My father showed your father as much mercy as he showed him, Dartmouth!" Jerry shot back. "There's not a jury in this land that would say otherwise!"

"Kinza to base," a com unit on Burnside started to squawk as it intercepted the transmission coming from the AmEx truck down the street. "Code Alpha one!"

"There's a security detail on the other side of the tree line from your location," a reply answered. "About one hundred yards west… what's the situation?"

"We've got a thug in the road," Kinza said as he stepped down from the truck. "Possibly armed… causing Jerry Saverem trouble…"

"Understood… on route…"

Wolfwood looked back at the spirit in the wagon. But Kinza was too busy listening to what was going on up in front of them.

"I should know better…" Nick told himself as he looked down, a bit ashamed at accusing his friend of not coming to his son's aid, "…he'd never allow anything to happen to the kids…"

He stopped. "But why did Jerry die then?"

"Wrong thought… Jerry dies… he _has_ to…"

North's words felt cold. How could a man who worked so hard to save and nurture his family so coldly say that his son _had_ to die?

He looked back at the front of the wagon and saw Vash standing in a defensive stance in front of the horses and Kinza and Burnside waving their hands for him to settle. He saw his son now standing on the ground over Dartmouth, who was wiping a bloody lip.

"What?" he asked as Xuru froze the scene. "What did I miss?"

"Your son just laid one hell of a haymaker into this punk!" Vash said with a smile as he stood up and wiped his nose like a fighter.

"If he hadn't I sure would have," Millie agreed. The fact that she wanted to pound the creep as well got Xuru to spin the dial a bit to back up the shot while Puruu wrote down that the normally peaceful lady they knew was ready to deck another human.

"Then there's that girl of yours, Gretchen…" Dartmouth sauntered. "She's never told you about us, has she?"

"What!?" Jerry yelled, a wild look crossing his face.

Dartmouth turned away and sneered. "What does she see in a slob like you anywa…" was all he got out before turning into Jerry's right hook to his chin. He spun about once and collapsed to the dirt.

"YES!" Wolfwood cheered for his son. "Perfect chin music! That felt good!"

"If you EVER go near Gretchen, I WILL KILL YOU!" Jerry screamed, catching his mother and father in a shocked silence. The fact that Dartmouth was now laughing did not help things any.

"Maybe you should ask _her_ before declaring that kid," the older boy said.

"Any problems there Jerry?" Tom the AmEx driver called. Dartmouth took that chance to scramble to his feet and scamper into the brush and brambles. Jerry fumed as he saw him run off.

"Not right now there isn't any Tom," he snarled. "What the hell did he mean by that?"

Time froze as Xuru paused the remote and everyone looked at Kinza.

"Hey-hey, don't look at me!" he said waving his paws about. "This isn't one I know of… How about you Burnsy?"

Burnside was closing his data PADD and rubbing his bald head. "God, I hate this job sometimes…" the old man murmured as he quoted North. "Take us to about six o'clock tonight Miss Xuru if you please? We're finished here."

The cart remained below those aboard it, though the material inside changed – the milk and eggs vanished and were replaced by boards and other building supplies.

Millie sat wringing her hands. Puruu sat beside her with her arm over her shoulder. The buckboard was now heading back to the farm, its driver quietly stewing as Wolfwood and Vash watched.

"Wasn't that his defense?" they heard Millie ask. Nicholas looked back at her.

"Ea?" he asked.

Millie continued to stare at the boards under her feet. "Wasn't self-defense his defense at his trial?"

"You mean Dartmouth?" Vash asked. He saw Wolfwood nod.

"Yea… it was…" he said. He returned to the study of his son. He glanced at Burnside, who had reopened his PADD. The old man was shaking his head again.

"So tell us, what happened?" he asked him bluntly. Burnside looked over at the spirit seated beside him.

"What?" Kinza asked.

"August 1910, just south of Rosston?"

The look on Kinza's face changed from puzzled bemusement to shock of a memory crashing through his head. "Frack…" he said.

"Okay, now what?" Nicholas asked. Kinza found everyone now staring at him and he vanished.

"HEY!" Xuru yelled. "You can't hide from us!"

"Who's hiding?" she heard as she found him seated on the lowered tail gate. He looked back at the pair he was supposed to keep an eye on. "Do you two remember when Greg VanDermier got in trouble with the law?"

"Gretchen's brother?" Millie asked. "Let's see… What was that all about?" she asked as she turned towards her husband.

Wolfwood smirked. "He discharged his gun to break up a barroom fight," he said. "Problem was the bullet ricocheted and nicked the sheriff as he was coming in the place."

Kinza nodded. "His sentence for that was to serve on a state run farm up in Rosston for six months, remember?"

Millie looked at him with a look of realization. "Oh, that's right! Gretchen would go up there and help him with anything he needed translated."

The security officer snorted in agreement. "Well, the one thing that you probably didn't know is that state run farm was that way because it had been seized from the estate… of Frank Dartmouth…"

"Oh crap," Nicholas said under his breath. "And that kid Chip was there?"

Kinza sighed. "The farm was run under the stewardship of the state, but managed by Francine Dartmouth, Frank's widow. She never held a grudge towards you or anyone else for what happened to her husband, but her son Chip was only three or four years old when he died. He was just old enough to know that someone did his father in."

Wolfwood grunted. "It was either him or me - there wasn't much I could do about it." He looked at Vash and raised a finger up to hush him. "Frontier justice… In many ways, it was much more brutal than it had been on Gunsmoke."

"Still…"

"STILL NOTHING!" the reverend exploded. "Noodle-noggin, when are you going to get it through that thick skull of yours that not everything can be talked out of or settled with only a wound!? This was MY FAMILY I was protecting! NOT JUST ME!"

Vash sat back and looked down. "Yes, but it may have just cost you your son…"

Wolfwood glared at his friend. He snapped a shot at the Tomassamassa spirit. "What happened to Gretchen?" he barked.

"It was Wednesday, August 10th…" Kinza recounted. "I was making a delivery to the main house using the old donkey cart as my truck was in the shop – it was probably a good thing too, as that monster would have been too loud…"

"Loud?" Puruu asked.

Kinza nodded. "I would have never heard that muffled scream…"

"What do you want old man?" Chip Dartmouth yelled up at the wagon. He was behind a bush beside the road. His right hand was out of sight, but from his position, he seemed to be holding something down with it. His left hand was on his belt.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ed the AmEx driver asked calmly.

The young man looked about suspiciously. "Just horsing around, what's it to you?"

"Ah," Ed said as he held the mule still. "Miss VanDermier, your father would like me to drive you down to Laverne Station… are you ready to go?"

The blood rushed out of Chip Dartmouth's face. He raised his hand up just enough to allow the young twelve year old girl to scramble up the embankment to the cart's side. Ed stood up and let her climb aboard. He could see that she had been roughed up, and some of her clothes had been torn.

"Get in the rear and don't come out," he whispered to her. "There's a blanket in the box marked First Aid."

Chip stared at him from below. He took a step forwards.

"Stay down there son," Ed said in a deep warning growl. "You belong in hell anyway… YAA!"

Chip watched the wagon pull away. He felt as if his blood had just frozen then.

"Edward," Francine Dartmouth call as she saw him pull up. He tipped his hat to her.

"M'am, we have a slight problem," he said as he handed her the package he was delivering. He gestured to the wagon. "I've got Gretchen VanDermier on board… I just pulled your son off her."

The woman raised her eyebrow as she signed her name on the board Ed had handed her. "Did you now?" she asked. "I was wondering why you stopped on the main path. Is she all right?"

"She is a bit torn up," Ed said. "I found Chip with his hand on his belt… if I hadn't shown up when I did…"

"I see," Francine bluntly said. "That boy does take after his father, doesn't he?" She walked over to the wagon. "That's how he came to be you know…" she added looking back. "Gretchen, come with me child," she called into the van.

"I will be taking her back," Ed said almost defensively. Francine looked at him over her shoulder as she helped the blanket-wrapped girl down.

"Good idea," she said as she led Gretchen to the house. "Do not worry, Mr. Olefchefski, I will take care of my son."

"So, what did she do?" Wolfwood asked with more than a bit of sarcasm in his tone. "Spank him?"

"She turned him in," Kinza said as he got off the tailgate as the wagon slowed. "Keeping Greg VanDermier happy was more important than her no-account son." He then quickly looked under the buckboard and waved to Xuru to stop the play.

The junior-demon planted her thumb on the pause button then craned around her partner to see what had caught the Tomassamassa's attention.

"Ooh, he's cute!" she exclaimed at a young man waving to the driver of the cart from the side of the path.

Millie saw the boy as well and at first had a happy surprised face, but it quickly vanished as she settled into her bail of hay. "Oh, Michael Timmons!" she had first excitedly said then seemed to regret having said it.

Puruu and Xuru noticed that everyone, save Vash, seemed to just stare at the boy with an almost sad expression. His large blue eyes and fair hair seemed to give him a somewhat ethereal look to his face.

Puruu swallowed, knowing she had to ask…

"Who is Michael Timmons?" Vash asked. She let go a sigh of relief and felt Xuru do the same beside her.

Wolfwood seemed almost choked up. "Umm… Mike…" he started. "Mike was…"

"Mike Timmons was a farmhand stationed down at the Steakhouse," Kinza noted. "He was a friend of Jerry's as well…"

"Steakhouse?" Vash asked looking about. "What, there's a restaurant around here?"

"No, that's the name of the boarding house that your cattlemen stayed at," Puruu said as she remembered her notes. She saw Nicholas looking at her with a surprised but sad expression. He then smiled.

"That's right," he said. "He was a member of my cattlemen. He was the youngest of them too… damn…"

Millie took his hand in hers and sighed. "He was a fine boy," she said to him.

Xuru looked at the blue jeans and old striped shirted person who she had caught in mid-wave and then back at the preacher and his wife. "Tell me he isn't going to die as well…"

Burnside turned away. Millie and Nicholas squeezed their hands together harder. Xuru felt a paw tap her on the leg.

"Mike took his own life about a year and a half from now…" Kinza told her. "Remember when they had to go to Washington to see David in hospital?"

He nodded towards the Saverems. Xuru thought a moment – if this is 1916, that would have made it 1918… David was in the hospital recovering from mustard gas poisoning his troop had incurred during World War I…

"Okay…" she nervously replied to the spirit.

"While they were away, Mike was found at the bottom of Twin Bluffs with a self inflicted pistol wound," he quietly explained to the girls. "It hit everyone hard – they all loved that kid. He would do anything for them, including Burnside, North, even Doc McManus… Damn S.A.M. system refused us permission to find out why too."

Puruu blinked. "Your computer refused you to find out why?"

Kinza snorted. "It said that 'the relative time history was not relevant to the mission'… cold circuited idiot!"

Puruu looked back at Burnside, who was in full uniform. "Shouldn't it be chirping now then?"

"Chirping?" Burnside asked.

Xuru scowled at him. "You know – _WARNING! WARNING! SAYING ANYTHING FURTHER MIGHT MAKE HISTORY TURN INTO A GNEWT _or something like that?" as she mimicked the harping the computer would normally make when something was supposed to be kept secret.

He looked at his patch on his shirt which was the communications link to the S.A.M. System. "It's probably not available right now – remember the ship was destroyed in this history. There's probably no S.A.M. substation available for it." He tapped his patch to see if he had contact.

"S.A.M. System – reporting functional contact, six bars…" it squawked back. Burnside sat dumbfounded. He looked at the boy beside the wagon then back at his patch.

"File – June 1916 – Gerald Edward Saverem," he asked it. "Include sub-file, Michael Timmons…"

There was a brief pause as his patch clicked a few times. "All files opened," it replied. Burnside grabbed the bail he was on as he looked at all those staring at him.

"They're open!" he exclaimed. "They're all open!"

"Meaning?" both Vash and Wolfwood asked.

"Meaning that either the subsystem S.A.M. here is unaware of the lock on some of the files," Kinza started.

"…Or we're here to see why Mike took his life as well…" Burnside finished.

The pause was released as Kinza climbed aboard again.

"Hey! HEY!" Mike called to Jerry.

The buckboard stopped with a jolt nearly sending Burnside into Vash. The Typhoon was also climbing back towards him and they smacked heads together.

"What's got you all red in the face boss?" Mike asked as he climbed aboard.

Jerry rubbed the back of his neck. "Aw, I've just had a bad day chief… Mom got on my case earlier…"

Millie looked at the floor. Hearing that only made her wish she had not been so harsh on him that morning.

"Then I had a run in with Chip Dartmouth…" he finished.

"Uh oh… what about?" Mike asked, a look of worry crossing his face.

"Aw, he was drunk – he was going on about the usual stuff… you know, about my dad and his dad… you know…" Jerry flicked the reins to get the horses moving again.

"Ah," Mike said as he rubbed his chin. They rode for a while in silence.

"Chief, tell me," Jerry then asked, "do you know of anything between Gretchen and Chip?"

"Er… umm…" Mike said with an obvious sense of dread in his tone. "Well… boss… like?"

Jerry looked at his friend. "Chief? What is it?" he asked.

Mike rubbed his neck, his nerves showing badly.

"He never was a poker face," Nicholas commented.

Mike looked to the side of the wagon. "You'd better pull over boss," he told him.

Jerry stopped the wagon along the trail near the fork in the road that would either send them homewards, or north towards Rosston.

"Okay, spill it," he told his friend. "What's between Gretchen and that worm?"

"Nothing… absolutely nothing," Mike told him. "But a few years ago, while I was working on their farm up north, I heard he nearly had his way with her."

Jerry sat back. "Had his way? What do you mean had his way with her?"

"Oh god," Millie said under her breath as Nicholas held her. The girls in the back held each other as well as the tension in the buckboard was starting to overflow.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?" Jerry now shouted.

"Boss! Boss! Please!" Mike yelped as he deflected the yell. "It means what it means! He tried to rape her!"

Jerry turned scarlet. "He what?" he said with only a whisper of breath to his voice. They all could see that the words had shaken him to the core.

"If old Ed hadn't come along, he probably would have too," Mike finished, a rattle rolling in his voice as the words seemed to fall out of his mouth without his permission.

"Ed? You mean Ed Olefchefski?" Jerry suddenly seemed less angry. "Yea… good old Ed… Mother always called him our guardian…"

Kinza rubbed his nose as Millie looked back at the spirit.

"Who, me?" he said.

"Was it when her brother was up there?" Jerry asked Mike with less red to his face, but now he seemed deep in thought.

"Yup," Mike replied. "He drove her straight home afterwards… I heard he got an earful from his boss for taking a rider on his van…"

Jerry gave the reigns a light flick. The horses started away again. To those in the wagon they thought for a moment that he was driving them up the north road, but he adjusted their direction slightly and headed up the home trail.

"You know him, right?"

Mike looked puzzled at Jerry. "Know him? Who, Ed?"

Jerry shook his head slightly making his overhanging bangs of hair sway. "No… I mean Chip…"

Mike swallowed. "Umm… not really – only acquaintances… really…"

Jerry nodded a bit. "Keep an eye on me, would ya Mike?" he asked. He looked over at his friend who turned white as a sheet when he saw Jerry's eyes.

"If somebody isn't around, I might kill him." Jerry had said that with a slight menacing smile.

Millie gave a slight chirp of a scream followed by Puruu. Even Xuru had to gasp at the sight of demonic hate rolling through the boy.

Nicholas lowered his head as he clung to his wife's shoulder. His son had never hurt a thing in his life. That was what was so unfair about his death – the knowledge that he had always been a good son – a caring individual – as a matter of fact, even though he had a few scrapes with other boys in his youth, today was the first time he had actually seen him hit anyone.

And now… now he had heard him threaten someone.

Was this truly his son?

The wagon pulled away from the Steakhouse after leaving off Mike and headed back up towards the house as the sun was just dropping down below the hill it stood on. Jerry brought it into the barn where he found Gretchen seated on some straw bails that were stacked along the back wall.

"Hello Jerry," she coyly said as she jumped to the dirt floor. She started to walk up to the wagon when Jerry got down and wrapped himself around her, spinning about in front of the horses as he kissed her. He then draped himself over her shoulder and just held her tight.

The girl was stunned by this, her arms still outstretched behind him. She felt him shake and could feel him running his hands over her long braids.

"I love you Gretchen… I love you so very very much," he shook out of his throat as a sob spilled out of him. She had no idea what was wrong, but she knew he wanted to be with her there and now. She placed her hands on his shoulders and rested her head on his chest.

In the wagon Vash cleared his throat. Burnside joined him.

"Perhaps it would be best…" Kinza hinted as he waved to the barn door.

"Oh, yes, indeed," the others chorused as they stepped off the buckboard. Millie was the last to leave, seemingly unable to take her eyes off her son and his girlfriend.

"He'd better not do anything wrong in there!" she said as she finally disembarked the wagon.

"No worries about that," Kinza noted. "Here comes the alarm bell."

"Jerry! Gretchen! Dinner!" she heard herself call from the back porch of the house. She looked out the door and saw herself pulling on the dinner bell.

"Mothers always have the worst timing," Kinza jibed at her.

_**Thursday, June 8**__**th**__**, 1916**_

Jerry had gone straight to bed after dinner saying he wasn't feeling well. Xuru spun the dial on the remote to move them to the morning of the next day.

Rainey – a wet dreary day greeted them as they looked out of the barn. Burnside examined his PADD for information if there was any relevance to why they needed to be there.

A grinding sound rolled up the drive from the bottom of the hill. The American Express van was plodding away in the mud, its rear wheels spinning at times in the ruts.

"Now what's he doing here?" Kinza pondered.

"That's not you?" Vash asked as Tom the driver could be seen heading for them now that his machine had crested the hill.

Kinza looked over at the PADD and pointed. "He's off on another mission for two weeks starting today…" Burnside said. "That must be Frean in there."

"Frean?" Puruu asked. "Oh yes, the other person who could be in that suit."

Kinza snorted. "Which means this will be Grumpy Tom… he hated how those suits pinched his tail!"

Millie looked confused at the discussion. "What do you mean? Why would Mr. Tom be grumpy about his tail?"

Kinza stared at her. He looked at Nicholas who shrugged.

"You've gotta be kidding…" the Tomassamassa said. "Millie, I damn near undressed for you on the path yesterday! You still don't know who is inside that Tom or the old Ed suit?"

"Well not today," Vash pointed out. Kinza snapped a glare at him.

Millie sat on a bail of hay with a completely innocent expression. "Tom or Ed Suit? What do you mean suit?"

"This is too much," Xuru nearly giggled. Puruu had to elbow her to settle.

Kinza was about to ask her why she looked at him yesterday when Mike had said about Ed preventing Chip from doing any harm, when they all heard "Tom!" shouted. The truck was turning about, making its way about so it could back up towards the barn. They looked around it and saw Jerry running through the rain and waving to the driver.

Tom pulled a rain slicker over his head as he got out of the truck with his clipboard and waved to the boy as he ran up to him.

"Tom, I've got a question to ask you," Jerry said as the rain plastered his hair down.

"Okay, but lets get into the barn first!" the driver said as they trotted to the rear of the van. "Got a load of tractor parts for ya today…"

They dropped the gate and unloaded a few large boxes and a tire.

"Hey, great," Jerry smiled as he caught his breath from lugging the large rubber wheel to the side of the barn. "Dad's been waiting for this for a couple of weeks!"

"Here," Tom said. "Sign here… so what's your question?"

"Ed Olefchefski," Jerry flatly said as he signed his name to the line on the board. "Is he still about?"

Tom looked at the young man for a moment. "Err, Ed? Oh yea, Ed…" he swallowed. "He retired… he's back in Philadelphia."

Jerry stamped his foot. "Shoot!" he said. "Do you think I can get a message to him? I need to ask him a question… it's important."

Tom slipped the small clipboard into his jacket. "Sounds serious," he said as he rubbed his forehead. "Ah haven't heard from him since he retired son… Ah have no idea how'd you get a hold o'him… What cha need ta ask him?"

Jerry shook his head making his wet hair splatter about his face. "Oh, it's nothing… I just needed to ask him something about Gretch…"

"Gretch? Gretchen VanDermier?" Tom asked. "Now he's a strange person ta ask 'bout young Gretchen, boyo… Are ya quite sure ya got the right person ta ask about her for?"

"What did he just say?" Vash asked as he squeaked his finger about his ear.

Kinza shook his head. "Frack… blasted voice modulator in the Tom suit… always found a way to jumble up words… uh oh…"

Everyone looked at Kinza. They then looked in the direction he was looking in.

There standing in the rear doorway of the barn was Gretchen, an umbrella over her head. Some were surprised to see she was in a dress and not her usual jeans overalls. She seemed frozen there, the rain drumming off her covering. She watched Jerry as he closed the gate on the truck and wave to Tom as it pulled noisily away. He turned.

It was as if she was right under his nose, yet still on the other side of the building. He caught sight of her standing there and shook. He spun about and tried to catch his breath. To Millie and Nicholas, it looked as if their son was about to have a heart attack.

"Vhy… vhy would you vant to ask Edward…" she asked him as she came in out of the rain. She gasped and dropped the umbrella.

"You… you found out?" she whispered. She covered her face with her hands as the fear of her secret thundered over her like the weather outside the barn.

Jerry turned to her as he saw her spin for the door. He dashed across and grabbed her as she exited. He threw himself over her as the rain pelted them both. They stood and cried into each other's shoulders.

Vash shook his head. "I've seen more than I needed to here," he said. Just then Mike ran by him as he entered the barn. "Maybe not," he then added.

"Huh… oh, there you are boss…" Mike coughed as he heaved and drained the rain off his body. "Sorry, was I… oh…" It was then he saw Gretchen under his arm.

He brought her back in from the rain to the dry barn where they both sat on a bail of straw. "What's up chief," he quietly asked his friend.

"Err," Mike stammered as he looked at Gretchen and then Jerry. "This is kinda… well…"

"It no longer matters, Michael," the girl said. "He knows…"

Jerry snapped a look between the two of them. "You knew he knew?" he asked his girlfriend.

Mike cleared his throat. "Jerry, I was there, remember?" he said.

Jerry thought for a moment and nodded. Of course he was right, he would have known. "What's up?" he finally asked a bit flustered still.

"It's Chip… he's calling you out…" Mike blurted.

Jerry got a sour look on his face. "What, again?"

"Again!?" Nicholas thundered. "Just how many times had he done THAT!?"

Burnside looked at his PADD. "Six times from what the data shows… looks like yesterday's right cross wasn't their first tussle. But, Jerry was the victor in all their run-ins."

They all looked back to see Jerry and the others moving backwards a bit. They then looked at Xuru, who was spinning the jog dial on the remote in reverse.

"This is important!" she quipped. She hit play and let the world go again.

"It's Chip… he's calling you out…" Mike blurted.

Jerry got a sour look on his face. "What, again?"

Mike swallowed and got an extremely worried look on his face. "Yea, but this time he expects you to have a gun ready!" he cracked.

Jerry rubbed his hand over his forehead. "He knows I don't use guns… daddy forbade them…"

"You did?" Vash asked with shock in his voice.

Wolfwood smirked. "A follow-up to my orphanage… I didn't want any of my charges following me in my footsteps."

"He's only trying to even the odds," Mike half laughed. "You'd deck him with your fists…"

Jerry got an angry look on his face. "When and where?" he asked.

Mike stood upright, not expecting such a glare from him. "Umm… Tomorrow at noon at the Rosston fork…"

Jerry nodded. He then smiled and rubbed the back of his head. "Then I'll just not go that way tomorrow!" he almost cheerfully said. Mike collapsed and Gretchen fell back in the straw.

"Oh, he's good," Kinza remarked looking at all the fallen people around him. "Takes after his Uncle Vash does he?"

Burnside tapped on his PADD and nodded to Xuru. "Move us to tomorrow morning," he said. "Nothing else happens today that we need to worry about."

"Hey, can we take a break?" Millie asked with a weary look on her face.

"Oooh, that sounds nice," Xuru said as she settled the time laps to the evening and stretched. The barn was quiet and the rain had stopped. They all settled down onto bails.

"Say, what are we supposed to do for food?" Vash asked as the sound of his stomach rumbled through the building.

"I've been wondering the same about facilities," Wolfwood said looking over at the old outhouse behind the main homestead.

Burnside looked about. "Since Millie designed The Source world to be the same layout as this world, I would expect that the same locations correspond." He gestured to the outhouse. "That is if you're afraid of stepping in something…"

Nicholas looked over at it. "The problem is this is 1916… I moved the outhouse a few times… It's not a good idea to leave it on the same spot all the time."

"Do you remember where you had it before?" Vash asked with crossed arms.

He looked around the grounds outside. "No, he said.

"Then the current one is going to have to do!" the Typhoon said as he ran for the outhouse. "You just HAD to say something about needing a bathroom!"

"Ah, hang on a moment," Kinza said then vanished. He reappeared a few minutes later with a box canteen and a large bag.

"What are those?" Millie asked as she watched the Tomassamassa pull some cups out of the bag and hand them around.

"Well, I'm not caught here like you folks," he said. "I can come and go as I please, so I just headed to the real Earth and stopped in at a Dunkin Donuts."

"Oh, you shouldn't have," Wolfwood grumbled as he saw a streak heading for them from the outhouse.

"OH! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE!" shouted Vash as the smell of fresh donuts drew him back like a fish caught on a hook. He found Kinza holding the box under his arms and claws extended to keep the Typhoon from hording them all. He slowly reached with his free paw into the bag and pulled out a smaller one and waved it across the Plantoid's nose.

"I was ready for you!" he grinned as he tossed the bag of crullers over to a corner sending Vash scurrying.

"You're dangerous!" Xuru giggled as she bit down on a Devil's Food donut. "You study your opponent first and go for their weak spot!"

"Yea," he said panting. "And I think I just found my weak spot!" He fell to his knees and faded slightly.

"You're only a spirit," Puruu said as she got down to assist him. "You can't maintain a solid form for this long!"

He pounded the floor, or at least tried to. "Blast it all, Jesse and James could!**¤** Why can't I?"

"They were being assisted there by an outside source remember," Burnside explained.

Puruu placed her hands on his shoulders and began to rub him as she transferred some energy to him. "Whoever they are, I'm sure that if they too were spirits that they would need assistance… And last I heard, you had still not reported in to Bahdom's Gate." She winked to him and he knew he had been had.

"Frack to pieces…" he grumbled. "I guess I'll have to stop in one of these days, ea?" He shook his head. "But I like my freedom…" He glanced over at the golden-haired man who was destroying the bag of donuts across from them. "Save the time Vash ran me over with that reproduction motorbike of Wolfwood's…"

"Pardon?" the Typhoon said with a mouthful of cruller.

"Hey, I always said, there's always room downstairs," Xuru coyly said as she twirled his beard with her fingernail.

He nodded. "Aye, Toval's Lock… I visited there," he said then cocked his head slightly. "The outskirts at least… too red for me… And Bahdom's was too blue… I like my green." He sat back, now a bit more firm, and leaned against the straw. "I think I'll take a nap."

_**Friday, June 9**__**th**__**, 1916**_

When he woke up, Kinza found the barn strewn with bodies and the sun glaring harshly through the open doorway he was leaning next to. He then had to pull his legs in quickly as the ten-year old twins Faith and Hope charged through the opening followed by the six-year old Ashton and four-year old Nick Jr., all of whom were heading for the hayloft.

"Oh, this is gonna get messy," he heard their father moan as he shook Vash and Burnside to get them up. Millie was just watching the kids with a satisfied look on her face. She looked over as Lexy came into the barn with a humph.

"Faith, Hope, Ash, and Nicholas!" she yelled. "I hope you're not where I THINK you are! You know how daddy feels when you start playing in the hay!"

"Awww, but sis…" was the common reply.

"So let me show you how it's REALLY done!" she grinned as she scampered up the ladder and proceeded to climb to the top rail of the hayloft and cannonballed into the stores below.

"It's amazing she lived to be one hundred…" Kinza grumbled as he watched her do it again as the kids cheered. He looked over and saw Xuru and Puruu writing that bit down in their Lexy sections of their notes.

"Explain to me again just why you want to do this?" they then heard. They looked outside the barn to see Mike talking with Jerry, who was on the wagon again with that day's stock that needed delivery to the depot. "Boss, you know that Chip will be waiting for you at the Rosston crossing!"

Jerry adjusted a straw hat he had on and smirked. "That's why I'm going the long way," he said. "And while I'm at it, I'll stop at Dougherty's in Stutter's Bend."

Mike scratched his head. "Dougherty's? The jewelers? What for?"

Jerry looked over the horses as he readied to head out and smiled. "Ma's right," he said. "And what's happened over the last few days has made me think about things… I'm gonna see what an engagement ring costs."

Millie gasped. She remembered kidding him for not asking the question to Gretchen. Had he done so?

"Pause it! Pause it!" Kinza yelped as he ran for the wagon just as Mike was getting on. It took Xuru a moment to remember where she had put the device before she managed to get control of the situation. They all then piled on much like they had the previous time.

"This I have to see," Mike said as time was restarted and the wagon rolled down the hill. At the bottom of the drive, Jerry turned them to the right rather than the left they would have normally taken.

"We'll have to stop at Dougherty's after I drop off this load at the depot then," Jerry said as he got the horses to move a bit faster than he would have normally taken them.

Nicholas looked up at the bright sun of that June morning. "He'd better move it along too, if he expects to get this down to the depot before the heat gets to it…"

"Yea, but he's libel to have butter in these cans if he keeps bouncing through this path like this!" Vash yelped as he avoided a splash from a puddle the wheels ran through.

"Its going to be a hot muggy one, that's for sure," Burnside noted as he rubbed his bald head. "If I remember this route, it doesn't have much shade on it, does it?"

Nick shook his head. "This is what we called the Winter Route – it was the easiest to clear because it was so open. The other route is shaded mostly by the trees. It runs along the valley between the two creeks and the tree-line over there." He hung on as the buckboard was brought about onto the southern path next to the Steakhouse.

"Whoa!" Xuru exclaimed. "Some ride!" She then saw the expression on Millie's face and nudged Puruu. "Hey," she said getting the Goddess-in-training's attention.

Puruu looked at the woman and saw the trickle of tears rolling off her face. She shimmied forwards and rested her arm over her shoulder.

"Hey… are you okay?" she asked her.

Millie broke. Her lip was quivering and she would take a few stray glances at her son in the driver's seat. "He was going to ask her… He was going to ask her finally… Oh Puruu… oh…" She fell over her shoulder and wept hard as the others watched. Xuru managed to climb up to join her friend and assist her.

The path was dusty and long, and the sun burned down on them all the way to Stutter's Bend. They made the turn back towards the depot road as they made the center of the small village that was on an old stage route.

"Hey Izzy," Jerry yelled to a man on the front porch of a small house along the main street. He slowed down a bit as they got closer. "Is your mother going to be in this afternoon?"

He looked back into the house and nodded. "Yup… maw don't like comin' out in this heat, no how…"

Jerry smiled and nodded to him. "Good! I'll be back in about two hours then," he said as he urged the horses on. Those on the wagon watched the man wave to him as they continued on. The side of the building had DOUGHERTY'S – APRAISALS & JEWLERS emblazoned on a weathered sign.

"I don't get it," Xuru said as she watched the small crossroad village fall behind them. "What's a place like that doing out here in the weeds like this?"

"Actually, it's not that uncommon," Wolfwood explained. "A few years prior to this, it was sometimes safer to convert cash to gems, gold or jewelry when traveling from east to west, or up and down some of the rivers around here. This was one of the main routes between Fort Supply and the west, so these places were normal sites around. Dougherty's was here clear up to the Second World War if I remember…"

The wagon was now speeding towards the sun as they headed southeast along a river.

"My this is hot!" Puruu said as she wiped her brow. She glanced at her partner and found her sunning herself.

"Feels great to me!" the Junior-Demon said with a smile. She opened her eyes when she noticed that the heat had suddenly vanished and found they were in the woods again.

"Almost there," Wolfwood said as he looked ahead. He had been worried about his son's speedy driving, but he knew that he had made this trip without any trouble. But he wasn't sure if Chip could be avoided that day as well.

"Only one more day," he whispered to himself. "Damn it! Damn it to hell…"

The unloading of the cart went without a hitch. But there was a bit of commotion as they finished reloading the empty milk cans.

Mike came running around from the back side of the depot looking as if he had seen death walking down the street.

"Jerry! Jerry!" he shouted. "Chip Dartmouth is heading this way!"

Jerry stood up on the driver's seat and looked over the loading dock. He could see the form of the man who swore he'd kill a few days before heading for them from far up the road. "D'you think he knows we're here?" he asked.

"I think he's just looking for you," Mike said nearly out of breath. "It probably finally dawned on him you didn't take your normal route today."

Jerry smirked. "Yea, he might have the brain of a mule, but he can still probably figure that out…"

Jerry and the others in the wagon then saw something that nearly took their breaths away as Mike climbed aboard and pointed down the road to the south… with a pistol.

"Then I suggest that we head for the Coal Ridge Road south of here, rather than the Stutter's Pike, boss," he said as his gun swung in front of Jerry's nose.

"Chief, what the hell are you doing with old Duke Underwood's gun?" Jerry asked as he pushed the old silver piece away. He could feel the hand holding it was nervous.

"I'm just ridin' shotgun, boss!" he said in an almost chipper tone that his shaky hand belittled. "You just drive this thing… Gretchen doesn't need to be a widow before she even gets married, right?"

"They'd better get a move on," Vash said as he looked back at the oncoming ruffian. Wolfwood watched as he instinctively reached for his sidearm, and was silently amused as he saw his friend find nothing there.

"SAVEREM!" they then heard being yelled from up the road. "SAVEREM, I WANT A WORD WITH YOU!" It was too late – Chip had seen them already.

Mike cocked the gun. Both Wolfwood and Vash heard the click of the hammer being pulled back. Kinza's ears were twisting about listening to the sounds both behind him and in front.

"Mike, quick! Hide that thing!"

The cattleman looked at his friend and saw that Jerry was looking at the office of the depot. He looked over and saw a big burly man standing there.

"Chip Dartmouth!" the man called back towards the scraggy outlaw running up the street. "It is _**I**_ who wish to have a word with _you!_"

"S-Sheriff Bradshaw!" Mike chirped as he quickly and safely released the hammer on the gun and stuffed it down a bail behind them.

"What do you want Bradshaw?" Dartmouth spat. He looked around himself to find two deputies on either side of him. One had been hiding on the opposite side of the large clearing the depot was situated on. The other came around from the backside of the main building. Both had their rifles aimed at his head.

"Well son," the sheriff swaggered, "you know the drill… parole violation, threatening people, disorderly conduct, the lot… rumors have it you were bragging that you were gonna have yourself a Saverem funeral today… that's a serious threat, son… attempted murder if I say so myself."

Dartmouth locked his stare on the boy driving the wagon. "You squealed you yellow backed son of a bitch! You told the sheriff, didn't you!?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Chip?" Jerry yelled back. "How would I have talked to the sheriff? I didn't even know he was here, and you know we don't have a phone!"

"The boy's right, Chip," Bradshaw said as he stepped down from the loading dock. "You told us last night yourself… that little drunken party you had in town and dragging a little black box behind you in the street like a coffin – it was rather obvious. Take him boys."

Chip was unceremoniously dropped into the back of a large black horse-drawn paddy-wagon. All the wile he glared at the riders in the buckboard.

The sheriff tipped his hat to the boys and followed behind the black wagon as they headed for Fort Supply. With that the boy finally began to breathe again. Jerry gave the reigns a slight snap, and the wagon began moving up the Stutter's Pike to the clatter of the large empty metal milk cans.

"That was too close," Mike finally said with a rasp in his throat. He reached behind himself and pulled the old gun out of the bail. Jerry glanced at it.

"Let me see that thing," he said. Mike looked at it and reluctantly handed it over to him.

Jerry spun the gun about in his hand, much to both his parent's surprise. He held it like a pro. He then laughed.

"You've never used one of these before, have you chief?" he asked Mike as he handed it back.

Mike looked at the gun and shook his head. "Umm, no…" he replied. "I've only fired a rifle before… why?"

Jerry leaned over and smirked. "It works better when loaded," he said out of the side of his mouth.

Mike wrestled with the release and popped the gun in half. Six empty chambers greeted him.

"OH GOD HAVE MERCY!" Mike yelped as he held the gun to his chest. Jerry shook his shoulder and laughed.

Nicholas noticed that Vash was staring behind them and looked back as well.

"You see something?" he asked.

"Actually, I've been seeing something for some time now," Vash said. "Xuru, stop the play, would you?"

The demon, who had been transfixed on the drama that had been playing before her, woke from her stupor and hit the pause button.

"Thanks," Vash said as he jumped down from the wagon. The others watched as he started to walk back up the road towards the depot. Wolfwood soon followed, which then brought the others.

"Yup, just as I thought," the Typhoon said as they rounded a tree.

She was on a tall horse, a rifle slung over her shoulder and a worried look on her face. Her hair wasn't tied up in the two braids she normally would have had them in, so it was flying back behind her as she rode.

"Gretchen," Millie said with shock in her voice. "What is she doing here?"

"She was trailing behind all along," Vash said. "I noticed someone back here ever since we left the farm."

"And you were going to tell us when broom-head?" Wolfwood barbed at him. "Actually, you're right… I felt like there was someone watching us as well."

"Where had she been when the sheriff stopped Chip Dartmouth?" Puruu asked.

Vash pointed down the road towards a large oak tree. "See where the dust the horse made is?" he said. "She was behind that tree over there all along." He looked at the frozen horse and the direction she was heading in. "You know, if she keeps going in that direction, she's going to find out just what he's doing…"

"Maybe not," Wolfwood said. "Notice what she's doing to the reigns and the angle of the horse… Let it run, Xuru."

The demon pressed play and the horse trotted to a stop. Gretchen watched the buckboard continue on and smiled. She turned her horse about and headed up the tree-lined path that would take her back to the farm directly.

"Smart girl," Kinza noted. "She'll be back before they get there, and they'll never know she was following them."

"Speaking of which," Burnside said with a nudge to Xuru, "we need to get back to our ride." A quick pause and a stroll up the pike and they were all back on the wagon.

They stopped at Dougherty's. Jerry went in, but Mike wanted to stop in at the General Store first.

"I'll be here in a minute, boss," he said. "Don't buy anything before I get back!" He winked and headed across the street.

Jerry and Mille stared at the rings that Mrs. Dougherty had placed before them. Small little string tags were hung on them telling their prices, many of whom made the boy squirm - $10, $20, $30! Why were they so expensive?

Puruu and Xuru looked closely at them as well and took notes. Puruu remembered about one of her mentors explaining the significance of the ring, about the commitment it meant and the meaning. She looked at her own ring-less hand and remembered the one on her mentor's. She always seemed to cherish that ring so…

"Why do I know that one?" she heard Millie say. She noticed that Jerry was holding one in his fingers that had a simple diamond on it.

"That is a very nice one," the old woman behind the counter said with a quivering smile. "But did you say it was for Gretchen VanDermier?"

"Umm, yes?" Jerry said as his face blushed red.

"Ah, but she has such small fingers," Mrs. Dougherty exclaimed. "That ring is much too big."

Jerry looked at it and the tag that hung from it. "Is there any way to make it smaller?" he asked.

The old lady took the ring and examined it under a magnifying glass. "Yes, but I can't do it… I would have to send it down to my cousin's in Fort Supply," she said.

"How soon?" Jerry quickly asked.

Mrs. Dougherty looked at him over her glasses. "Oh, it could be ready as soon as tomorrow, if you wanted to go down there and get it yourself… why? 'You in a hurry or something?"

"Heh," Jerry laughed as he scratched the back of his neck. "Yea, you could say that…"

The door opened to a bell chime. Mike entered. "Did I miss anything, boss?" he ribbed his friend. He came over and looked at the ring he had chosen.

"Nice… but what… you think she's got fingers like cigars?" he asked. "That's huge!"

"Naa…" Jerry laughed as he pulled out a roll of bills. "I'm going to have it made smaller… how much?"

"$25 for the ring… $15 for the resizing… mind you, if it needs resizing again, just bring it back here and we'll do it for free…" Mrs. Dougherty tallied on a receipt bill, "that will be $40 American…"

Mike gawked as he watched his friend drop four $10 bills on the table. "Where do I pick it up?" Jerry then asked.

"IZZY!" Mrs. Dougherty barked. "I NEED YOU TO RUN THIS RING DOWN TO MICHEAL'S!"

"Okay," came a muffled unimpressive reply.

"It should be ready just after noon tomorrow," she then answered him with a smile. "My cousin's place is on the main street next to the jail. You can't miss it."

Kinza looked up from the chair he was seated in. "Frack… That's where Chip Dartmouth is right now…"

They all gathered by the wagon again. Xuru paused time to allow her group to get on unseen by any movement of the wheels. She then released it and the boys got aboard.

As Mike climbed up, Vash heard a rattle coming from his pocket – a subtle sound, but unmistakable. He looked at Wolfwood. The preacher had also heard it and glanced at his friend.

"Great, he got bullets," they heard. They looked back at the Tomassamassa spirit, whose ears were pointing straight ahead. "Can this setup get any worse?"

That evening, they sat inside the barn – all except Wolfwood. He had asked to allow time to flow normally and had followed his son back into the house. He silently went up to his bedroom and waited, since he remembered that he had gone there soon after dinner again.

Gretchen had greeted them when they had arrived, as he knew she would have, and Jerry has spun her about in an embrace he fondly remembered giving his own wife when he had asked her to stay with him in The Source. Jerry asked her if she would be available Saturday night, that he wanted to see her alone.

Now he watched him lying on his bed as he stared at the ceiling. A lamp dimly lit the room for a final night.

Wolfwood felt his heart ache – but not like the pain he has endured the next day, when he saw his son's fateful event, but much like the day after he shot Zazie the Beast. He wanted to breakdown and cry, but he knew that wouldn't help the situation. He sat in a rocking chair that was in the corner. He remembered holding Jerry as an infant in that very chair and rocking him to sleep. He remembered teaching him to be a good man, an honorable man, a man of… peace…

"_If somebody isn't around, I might kill him."_

The words that his son had said in anger still bounced inside his mind. What made him die? Had he taken on Chip in a foolish gunfight that he would have never won? What really happened to his son?

And did Millie really have to be there? Did she even want to be there?

"Well, what do you think dad?" Jerry asked. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

"What… marrying Gretchen?" Wolfwood asked knowing his son could not answer him.

"Yea," he did reply. "She's a wonderful girl and all… but Dave, well he did marry her in my place…"

Wolfwood looked down on the boy in the bed. He was looking back at him. He rolled over and faced his father.

"Jerry?" Nicholas asked. "What the hell are you doing here, son?" he asked as he leaned over towards the edge of the bed and realized it was his spirit he was seeing now.

He laughed. "All of us upstairs know what's going on here… The family is all abuzz with it. I just decided to come down and see where we stand…"

Wolfwood sat back. "Damn it kid, you're as bad as your sister!"

Jerry cocked his head. "Which one?"

"Lexy!" Wolfwood snorted. "She's had her fill of causing your mother and I fits." He then just looked at him in silence, a smile passing his face.

"Well its good to see that you still look the same as you did when I saw you last," Jerry finally said breaking the silence. "Though I do believe that you've lost those gray sideburns you had."

"Heh," Wolfwood laughed. "It's the Plant in me." He then thought of something. "Wait a minute… If you're here, does that mean we did what we needed to do?"

Jerry got a slightly confused look on his face. "Ummm… no, I would be up there anyway by now."

Wolfwood nodded. "That's right… this is only a playback… Okay… how about this… how far do you remember? I mean do you remember getting shot? Do you remember recovering?"

Jerry sat up on the edge of the bed and scratched the mop of hair that was hanging over his face. "Well, I'm kind of like Aunt Meryl I think," he said. "You know… dual memories…"

"Aunt… oh, you mean Vash's Meryl," Wolfwood noted as he remembered about her bout with Sandusky's playing with the time stream. "Any idea which memory is clearer?"

Jerry sighed. "I would guess the corrected one, since I know that Gretch and David are… you know…"

Wolfwood nodded as he leaned back in the rocker and looked at the dark ceiling. "She always did love you both… She never was the same after you…"

"Yea, funny…" the boy said with a huff. "Maybe that's why there are two of them up here with us."

"Two of them? Two Gretchens?"

"It is a rare case," the light voice of Puruu said as she passed through the wall next to the preacher, "but not truly uncommon… Pardon my intrusion, but I felt the presence of another spirit."

"That's okay," Wolfwood said quietly. "What did you mean that it's not uncommon?"

She bowed slightly to the boy on the bed. "A spirit can be such a fragile thing when incased within a living vessel, such as the human body. It is very easily fragmented. And on the day that your son died, hers was broken, and part of it died… the part that followed your son's soul to heaven…"

"What part was that?" he asked.

"It is quite easy to discern," she said as she bent down into a prayer stance. "It is said the youth of one's soul is so easily shattered. The day he died was the day her childhood ended."

It struck Wolfwood then. "Ah, I understand… she did almost seem like a completely different person after that… solemn, less trusting, suspicious of people… but doesn't that happen to everyone?"

"Not always in the same way," the Goddess-in-Training said. "Events in one's life always form the reality that one sees. You for example…"

Wolfwood looked at the girl. "Me?"

She nodded and prayed. "You had your youth stripped away at an early age – earlier than even you perceive…"

"Earlier?" Now Wolfwood was getting a bit steamed. "What sort of crap…"

"Your mother… you never knew her, did you?"

Wolfwood stopped and stared at her. Something struck the back of his mind.

"What… what the hell does that have…"

Puruu stood up and placed his head against her chest. "She did not abandon you as you perceived," she told him as she rested her hands on his head. "She was taken from you. It is why you became a wandering priest… even though your childhood was a horror, you still strived to help women and children where you could, in the only way you knew."

"You kicked ass!"

Puruu and Wolfwood looked over at the Junior Demon who had now joined them. She grinned and quickly sat next to the spirit of Jerry on the edge of the bed.

Puruu stepped back and bowed to Wolfwood then sat down on the floor. "Uh hem… Yes," she had to agree with her partner, if not exactly in the way she had put it.

Wolfwood stared at the floor. "Who was she?" he asked.

Puruu crossed her legs in a lotus position. Xuru squirreled up her nose.

"Oh, I hate it when you get into that position!" the demon griped as the goddess raised her power levels. "It looks so painful!"

A trickle of tear rolled down Puruu's cheek. "Do you really wish to know?" she asked. "It pains her so…"

Wolfwood rested his head on his hands. "She was a prostitute, wasn't she?"

Puruu shot the preacher a glaring look. "She was a woman of the cloth, just as you are now."

Nicholas gagged. "A… A what?" he asked with a shutter. "My… my father… my so called father…"

"…Lied," Xuru bluntly finished for him. "Yea, he has a special pot to stew in downstairs…" She winked at him and grinned. "See? We're an equal opportunity community down there!"

Wolfwood hardly could think straight. "She was… what was she?"

"She's a very nice lady," Jerry said. "She giggles whenever we call her grandma…"

Puruu held her hands up as her wings shimmered to life for a moment. Before her a young woman appeared in black robes. She had dark brown eyes and auburn hair that was neatly pinned back over her ears. She then covered her head in a habit.

"A nun?" Wolfwood asked. "She was from the Sisterhood of Angelina in December?"

Puruu nodded. "She was one of the last of those kidnapped in the bandit raids before the garrison of troops were stationed there by the government. As a matter of fact, the last one was broken up by someone you know well."

Wolfwood looked at her wide eyed. "Oh don't tell me… Noodle-noggin?"

Puruu smiled briefly. "He does get around," she said as she again bowed her head. "He rescued her and returned her to the convent… but unfortunately, the chief of the bandits had already had his way with her. She died a day after giving birth to you… she never gave up her faith though…"

"No…" Nicholas said as he buried his head in his hands. He felt a set of hands rub across his back. He looked up and found his son there. He grabbed him by the waist and released his feelings into him.

It was late in the evening when Wolfwood finally exited the homestead. The night was bright and starlit. The unpolluted sky of the near-prairie allowed the Milky Way to blaze a trail overhead. He saw a familiar silhouette along the ridgeline behind the house and decided to join it.

"Hey," Vash quietly said as his friend stepped up to where he would sometimes find Kinza observing things in the past. Oddly, he was there as well. But rather than watching over the house and its contents, he was laying on his back just watching the night go by above.

"Here," the spirit said. "I went and did another trip back to normal Earth and picked up a few things." The next thing Wolfwood knew, he had a cold bottle in his hand.

"Beer?" he asked as he found a twist-off cap. "I haven't had one of these in a while…"

Vash gave a small chuckle. "We figured that of all nights, this would be one that you could use one of them.

Nicholas sat down and joined the observers of the evening. It had been awhile… the taste was bitter at first, but the alcohol felt good going down.

"You know, it's amazing," he said to the darkness. "I feel like I want to go out blazing – get my old Punisher and make everyone repent their sins… crap…"

"Who can blame you?" Kinza said in a deep grumble. "After all, it is family that you're watching here… you see, you've got a rather interesting perspective that even I as an Observer didn't have… You know the future in this case… at least most of it… the way it's supposed to go that is…"

"Ya, dat's true," Wolfwood heard. He looked over at the Tomassamassa on the ground and saw that he wasn't alone. "It ztill seems untfair dat he had to die zen," the spirit of young Gretchen said.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Wolfwood asked as he gagged a bit on his beer.

"I came along vit Jerry," she said. "I take it you two had your talk?"

Wolfwood nodded then looked at his drink and made sure it had not been spiked. He saw the girl stand up and brush off her pants.

"Zen I vill go take him home," she said and started over the hill.

"How do you do it?" Nicholas asked her before she got out of earshot.

"How? How do I do vat?" she asked back.

"Survive…" he replied. "How do you survive split like that?"

She looked at the moonlit grass. "Ve understand," she said quietly.

"We?" the preacher asked. "You mean you and your older self?"

Gretchen nodded. "David still has her… as difficult it vas for zhem… It vas rather interesting ven dey first saw us up zhere… I vas zurprised by David's response… he ztayed near us ze entire twenty-one years it took for my older zelf to arrive… And when she did… vell, zhere vas one confused spirit!"

"Bahdom's Gate is sometimes more complicated than some would imagine," Kinza noted as he continued to examine the sky. He looked over at the two men beside him and smirked. "Why else would they have schools for goddesses and spirits up there? Downstairs too…"

"Is that why you haven't reported in yet?" Vash asked as he sipped the beer in his hand.

"Darn tootin'!" he said as he looked at the bottles in the grass. "Forrestal and Exeter would sometimes work as intermediaries between the two sides, so I got first hand experience between them… and I didn't have to die to find out how things worked." He craned back to look at Gretchen. "But I do know that usually, as fractured as they can get, it is still rare when a spirit does not merge with its missing parts once they get there. Why have you chosen to remain separated?"

She turned away from the men. "I am zhe Gretchen zat loved Jerry… If I had remained vithin my body, I vould have never been able to be vit David. Zat vould have ruined de future, vould it not?"

The pocket watch in Wolfwood's pocket chimed. He pulled it out and looked at it in the moonlight.

"Midnight," he said. "It's June 10th… god I loath this day…"

_**The day**_

"Good morning, mom!"

Jerry bounded down the steps into the kitchen and gave his mother a peck to her cheek. She blinked as she watched her son grab a corn muffin and wolf it down. He tapped a plaque on the wall that his sister Meryl got for her writing as he exited through the backdoor for the barn.

"My, he's sparky this morning!" she pondered.

"Perky," Nicholas corrected her as he drank some coffee and read the paper.

Jerry checked out his wagon full of stuff that the VanDermier boys were finishing loading. He was gathering up his paperwork and sorting it onto a clip board when he felt a slap to his back.

"Hey, mop-head! You seem chipper today!"

"Dave?" Jerry asked as he spun about. "What the… what are you doing here? The army doesn't give out passes that quickly!"

His brother smiled and scratched the back of his head. "Normally, I'd agree with you… but we're about to mobilize, and the Colonel gave most of us an extra two days to get ready."

Jerry stared at him. "Mobilize? What do you mean? What for?"

Dave plopped his hand on his brother's shoulder. "You don't read the newspaper much, do you?"

"Only the comics," Jerry replied with a bit of embarrassment.

"Attaboy!" Vash said with conviction and got an elbow from Wolfwood. "What?" he complained while rubbing his ribs. "They're the most important part of a newspaper!"

"It's getting ugly in Europe," David said. "And what with all these submarine sinkings, it was only a matter of time. So Pershing is having us regulars get ready."

Jerry looked away. "Really, huh?" he said as he scuffed the dirt with his boot.

"Hey squirt, what's up?" Dave asked seeing his brother's reaction.

"D'you think they'll call up more men?" he asked.

Dave stood back and thought. "Probably – there's a pitiful amount of soldiers around right now… why?"

Jerry slapped his hand against the wooden seat of the buckboard. "Dang! Maybe I should wait…"

"Wait?" David asked as he walked up to him and turned him about. "Wait a minute… what have you got up your sleeve Jerry?"

He laughed and scratched the back of his mop-head. "Well… I bought a ring… I was gonna… you know…"

David grabbed him by both shoulders and shook him. "Jerry, that's great! You're gonna propose!? When? When!?"

Jerry quickly looked behind himself. He didn't want to see Gretchen in that back doorway again overhearing him again. "Tonight… but if we might be going to war…"

David shook him again, and this time added a finger to his nose. "You get that out of your head, Jerry Saverem!" he barked. "If you don't go through with it, you will regret it, she will regret it, and I will regret it! Don't let some squabble in Europe stop you! You know she's waiting for you! Mother certainly is! So is her mother!"

Jerry smiled and punched his brother lightly in the shoulder. "Like you'd know that!" he smirked.

Dave slugged him back. "So squirt, where's the ring?"

"I pick it up this afternoon… I've got to go down to Fort Supply and pick it up," he said as he boarded the wagon. "I had Mrs. Dougherty resize it."

Dave gawked at him. "Resize it? Jerry, how much did you pay for that thing?"

He pulled the receipt out of his breast pocket and looked over. "$40…" he replied.

"Dang! You're serious!" Dave exclaimed.

"$40 is a lot?" Xuru asked as she held time momentarily to board the buckboard.

"In 1916 it was," Wolfwood said as he sat next to his wife. "Chickie, do you really want to come on this trip?"

She sat silently and nodded. She had vehemently proclaimed earlier that she would not be left out of this, be it ever so painful to watch.

The wagon pulled out of the drive and headed east towards the normal tree-lined route to the depot. Vash watched behind them and saw an interesting sight.

"Someone's riding like a bat out of hell down the Winter Route," he noted. Wolfwood saw what he was referring to just as the view was blocked by the trees.

"Do you think its Gretchen again?" he asked.

Vash shook his head. "Can't tell from this distance… could be… but why go that way again?"

"Observer base to location 12… come in…" Burnside's patch squawked as he monitored communications.

"Observer post 12," the familiar voice of Pastor North replied. "Are we still in lockdown?"

"Affirmative," Burnside's own voice said back over the unit. "S.A.M. is completely locked. We have no idea why. There has to be an event happening today."

"That's a roger," the scientist replied. "Jerry Saverem is passing my position as we speak. Monitors are still working, so I would speculate that you are correct. Set all Observer Stations to code one…"

Kinza nodded as he listened in. "That's as high as it gets without climbing into his hip pocket."

"Yes, but is that what might have caused this problem we're having?" Wolfwood asked.

"It very well could," Burnside speculated. "A code one would mean that every agent available is on heightened alert and are given clearance to prevent any possible historic errors… that would include preventing him from getting shot, or preventing him from dying."

The com unit began a nearly constant chatter as Observers began reporting the slightest oddity or possible problem to a central command. Burnside needed to program it to settle for only the local traffic.

It was nearly eleven in the morning when Jerry arrived at the depot. There he found to his surprise Mike on a horse looking a bit bedraggled.

"Well, I think we just figured who it was you saw on the old Winter Road," Wolfwood said.

"That's not all," Vash said. "Look what's in his belt."

The handle of the gun stuck out from under his loose shirt in the back. It was sure to be loaded this time. He tossed his shirt tail over it and shimmied the house over towards his friend on the buckboard.

"What the hell are you doing here like that Mike?" Jerry asked a bit bemused.

"Well boss, I was thinkin'," Mike said a bit winded. "This is Saturday, right?"

"Yea?" Jerry agreed questioningly as he backed the wagon into the dock and set the break.

"Doesn't places like Dougherty's close early on Saturdays?" Mike asked.

Jerry looked at him in shock. He was right! And worse, they would be closed all day on Sunday! He looked up at the work-hand that was waiting to unload his buckboard and reload the empty pails and crates back on.

"Digger, can I have you reload the cart?" he asked him. "I've got to get down to Fort Supply before Two o'clock!"

The crusty old depot operator laughed. "Must be fer a girl," he spat. "Yea, go ahead… I'll get Bo ta help swap loads… Just give me yer bill o'laiding an' I'll get her ready."

"You're a saint, Digger!" Jerry cheered as he un-tethered Daisy from her harness and climbed aboard her bareback.

His parents and those observing stood in silence as they watched him tear off down the road with Mike behind him.

"Ah… this is a problem!" Wolfwood said.

"They're leaving us behind!" Millie exclaimed reaching out as if she could stop him with her stretched out hand.

Suddenly the world seemed to spin about. Xuru was playing tricks with the remote and moving their location manually. "Is this Fort Supply?" she asked.

"Umm… Laverne Station," Wolfwood said as he saw a few buildings around them. It then vanished again in a swirl.

"This?" the demon asked.

"Rosston," Kinza said seeing the state-run farm behind them.

"Grrrr!" she cursed as she attempted to get her bearings. "How about this?"

They found themselves standing in a wide dusty road. A train depot was nearby and what looked like the old walls of a stockade was across from them.

"This is it!" Burnside barked. He looked at his PADD and tapped it a bit. "We're nearly an hour before he arrives."

"Well done," Wolfwood commented to Xuru as he guided them towards the jailhouse. She had not expected that.

"Let's see where Chip is right now," Vash said as he watched a deputy head for the front door. He was about to follow him in when he felt a hand grab him.

"He wouldn't be in there now," the pastor said. "He was drunk when he… he… Crap… he'd be over there…" He pointed at a bar across the street.

"What?" the legendary gunman harped. "What the hell is he doing out of jail?"

"Insufficient evidence," Kinza said. "So he was getting sloshed over there." He looked beside the jail and found the jewelry store that Jerry was heading for. "Well, this is his destination," he mumbled. When he looked back at the group though, he found Wolfwood walking over towards the bar.

"Nick," he barked. "Don't do anything rash."

"I'm not," he said without turning. "I'm making sure history does not error."

He stopped in front of a man who seemed to be just leaning against the wall outside the bar.

"Can't see me, can you Tolly?" he said.

Kinza snorted. "I'll be shaved… it is Tolefson!"

Wolfwood looked about. He looked at the building next door – a general store. He walked over to it and entered the open door. He came out with a pad and pencil.

"Damn good thing we can touch things," he mumbled to himself as he began to scribble out a note. He then tapped Tolefson hard on the shoulder.

"Ow!" the Observer yelped. When he looked up he found a pad floating in midair and a pencil was writing on it. "Oh crap!" he exclaimed as the pad spun around and presented itself to him.

"_Mr. Tolefson, this is Wolfwood,"_ the pad read.

"Oh god," he said as he swallowed. He looked to either side and waved the pad to follow him. He walked to the side of the bar building and slipped down the narrow alley. He looked back and found the pad coming up from behind.

"Okay," he said showing some excitement as he seemed to be having a hard time catching his breath. "Relevance?" he asked.

"Ah, good lad," Burnside said. "He's remembering his training. Tell him where you're from, Nick."

The pad flipped back to the pencil. It scribbled _"From the Source."_ When he showed it to him though, Tolefson only looked confused.

"He needs a reference date," Kinza noted. "Tell him Stardate 07014.27."

Wolfwood wrote that down and showed it to him. The blood seemed to drop from the young man's face.

"Damn!" he swore as he pulled his com unit out. He looked at the pad before opening it though. "Why… I mean… what is the situation?"

He watched the pad slowly turn. The pencil at first crawled across the page, but soon became more rapid. When it was turned back to him, he could see fingertips pressing hard into the paper causing a corner to tear.

"_The events of today must not be hindered with,"_ the pad said. _"Jerry Saverem must die."_

"Oh my god…" Tolefson gagged. "Nick, if that's you… you just told me to… let your son… oh Nick…"

The pad dropped down. It came back up for a moment for the pencil to write something new. _"Kinza says to tell you – History's Daggers."_

Tolefson wiped his face as he leaned into a barrel. "Yea… yea, he's right about that…" He opened his com unit and pressed an alert switch. "Tolefson to Observer's Base… Code Omega… repeat… Code Omega…"

"Oh man, Tolly…" Kinza said with more than some worry in his voice. Wolfwood and Vash looked back at him and found Burnside looking at the ground shaking his head.

"Damn, this is a crappy day," the old man said.

"What?" Nick said as Tolefson dejectedly walked out of the alley and back to his post. "What did I just do to him?"

Kinza drew in a breath. "To the Observers Corp, a mission is run on a series of codes – Code One is of course the message that everyone is to keep watch and prevent an occurrence that might hinder the future… in other words, all hands on deck… but that order can be countermanded by a Code Omega… And the person who activates an Omega does not have to explain why they called it, even though they will be scrutinized by his superiors for making that choice and it will be on their permanent record."

"Maybe this is why he never rose higher than Lieutenant," Burnside said. "Only Commanders and higher won't have it affect their rank scores…"

"And it does involve a mission watch member," Kinza agreed. "There would have had to have been substantial reason to let one member of the family… die… But unless the computer suddenly comes back and says that this wasn't supposed to happen, then there is little recourse but to follow whatever reason the Omega was called for."

"Look, can we just wait over by the jewelers for Jerry to show up?" Wolfwood snapped as he tossed the pad and pencil and trudged back towards the end of the alley. Now that this was involving more than his own family it was starting to weigh heavily on him.

Kinza peeked into the bar. Chip Dartmouth was at a table by himself with a large bottle of something brown. He was remarkably quiet for someone with the reputation of being a boisterous drunk.

"Tolly, are you sure?" he caught just bearably. He looked to his side at the young officer who had given the Omega order as he touched his ear.

"Yes Captain," he whispered. "Confirmed."

"Understood," the voice of North said. "Dickinson and Foley will be there shortly."

Tolefson nodded. "I will surrender peacefully," he replied as he closed his palmed com unit. He sighed and looked at the sky.

The pad and pencil came around the corner again. He noticed it scribbling rapidly. He then felt a paw on his shoulder as it was handed to him. He then saw the pencil rise up and slide to a stop as if someone had just stuck it behind his ear.

"_Tolly,"_ the pad read, _"this will indeed be an ugly day, but you did the right thing. The stake of the future is involved. You will survive this. – Kinza. PS – Keep this pad as proof."_

It was roughly forty-five minutes later when Jerry and Mike entered the northwest road into town. The group watched as Jerry dismounted Daisy and ran into the jewelers. He was followed by his mother and Puruu. Xuru and the others stayed outside and watched the other side of the street.

Vash noticed that Mike stayed on his horse and had it move over towards the jail where he looked into a barred window on the side of the building.

"Crap!" he heard him exclaim. "Where is Chip?"

Tolefson stared. He had heard the boy on the horse as well. He glanced into the Bar and saw Dartmouth stand up with a stagger. He began to step forwards and nearly fell on his face.

"Here it comes," Burnside grimaced as he saw his PADD blink with the signal alert of the S.A.M. System from Tolefson bringing all sensors and recorders up to speed.

"Umm… this is all that stuff that was locked out by the computer before," Kinza noted as he rejoined the group.

Jerry was walking nervously back and forth in the store waiting for Michael to come out of the back room workshop with his ring. Millie and Puruu stood and watched him as he paraded.

"I do wish he'd settle," his mother said. She was almost ready to grab him when the door burst open.

"Boss!" Mike yelped as he entered. "Dartmouth's gone! They released him!"

Jerry held his hand up. "That's okay Mike," he said with calmness to his voice, even though his feet said he was racked with anxiety.

"Here we go, Mr. Saverem," Michael said as he exited the back room while wiping something in a rag. "Careful, it's still a bit warm from the polishing."

He held out the rag and displayed the ring in the middle of it. Millie stepped up and examined it closer.

"I know I've seen that ring before," she said as it was turned over by the jeweler.

"Excellent," Jerry said as he gave the man an extra fiver as a tip for a job well done. "Have you a box?"

"I'll go and keep an eye out," Mike said as he left the store. He stood on the porch and looked around. Seeing no signs of Dartmouth, he decided to check in the jail to see where he had gone. Inside, he found that even the deputy that Vash had followed earlier was gone.

Jerry wrapped the small box in the receipt paper, stuffed it in his pocket and thanked the jeweler again as he left the store. He turned to find where Daisy was and saw Dartmouth at the doorway of the bar across from him.

"S-S-S-SAVEREM!" Chip slurred as he staggered out into the dirt street. "I w-want a word with you!"

Jerry stood upright and examined the sloshed soul who was approaching him. "Are you quite sure you can?" he yelled back.

Dartmouth stopped about ten feet away, swaying back and forth on his feet. He raised his fist up and took a fighting position.

"Come on y-you!" he babbled. "I'm here to k-kill you!"

Jerry smirked. "With your fists? What? No gun?"

"I'MNOTALLOWEDTOHAVEAGUN!" Chip rammed his words together as he shouted. "Otherwise, you'd been dead alllong time agooo!"

Jerry slapped his head with his hand. "You're kidding! I've been worried that you were going to shoot me! What a joke!"

"Huh?" Chip gurgled.

Jerry glared at him. "Not today Dartmouth! Go dry up first and maybe I'll knock some sense into that skull of yours!" He turned away to get on Daisy.

The drunk got a lopsided grin on his face. "Ah… got some hot date with Gretchen tonight, ea?"

Jerry spun about. "I told you last time, Dartmouth! I don't EVER want you to mention her name again!"

"Make me!" Chip sneered as he lunged forwards with his fists. Unfortunately, he swung at the Jerry on the left. The two in the middle slammed their rock hard hands into his midsection followed by a left hook to his chin. He spun completely around and dropped to the ground in a pile of dust.

Wolfwood stood in awe of his son. He hammered the man easily, sprawling him to the ground.

"My goodness!" Millie exclaimed with Puruu beside her. She saw her son wipe his face and step away from the flattened drunk at his feet. She then saw in his face his father's image – the determination she remembered on Gunsmoke that he would get when he fought. She watched as he climbed back on the bareback of Daisy, no longer the boy she knew.

"Mike!" Jerry shouted. "Yo, chief! Let's go!"

Mike charged out of the empty jailhouse and saw the mess in the street. "What!? What!? Yo, boss! What did I miss?"

Jerry laughed. "Come on, get your horse! We've got to get the wagon back home."

"Error – error – error," Burnside's PADD was harping. He tapped on it a few times and looked at Xuru. She quickly found the remote and paused it.

"Something's wrong," he said as he looked at the data being shown. "Dartmouth will be sent back into the jail shortly… but only for drunken misconduct… What happened?"

Wolfwood looked at the frozen scene and nodded. "I know what happened… back us up a bit Xuru."

The Junior-Demon looked at him a bit confused but did as told. The scene backed up to just before Dartmouth swung at Jerry. Wolfwood waved at her to stop. He looked over the hunched over drunk and saw Vash standing beside him.

"Let him get that first one in," he said to the preacher.

Nicholas nodded. Both he and Vash hunched down and matched Dartmouth's position.

"Okay Xuru… Slowly," the reverend said.

Dartmouth swung at his imagined target. Jerry brought his right up onto his stomach.

"Slowly! Slowly!" Vash yelped. Xuru switched to the jog dial and made the progression crawl. Then she saw what the two men were doing.

Jerry's left cross was coming down to smash against Dartmouth's head. The reverend placed his hands between his son's and the cranium. Vash covered over Chip's head with his own hands. The blow, even in slow motion, still smarted as it was like trying to hold onto a lumpy ten-ton press as it squished hard against their fingers.

"OW! OW! OW! OW!" both men yelped as the fist finally followed through and Chip's head rotated to the twisting of the two men's hands. They stood up and shook their fingers as Dartmouth continued to fall to the ground.

"Ow! Do you think we deflected it enough?" Vash asked as he sucked on his throbbing right thumb.

Wolfwood shook his hands and stuffed them under his armpits. "Damn, I hope so. He certainly has the Wolfwood fists…"

"That's for sure," Vash agreed. "I felt them before myself, remember?"

Wolfwood grunted. "Let's get out of the way and let this go," he said as he joined his wife on the porch of the jewelry store. She pulled his hands out and rubbed them in hers.

"Stupid male thing," she grumbled as she massaged his fingers. "Always trying to stop a fight…"

"No," he replied. "Trying to save our future… Go Xuru."

The demon nodded and pressed the play again.

"Mike! Yo, chief! Let's go!" Tolefson heard as he watched Jerry mount Daisy. He had rooted him on as he pummeled the idiot who had threatened him. He looked at the pad in his hands and now wondered if he had been too rash in calling for the Omega. Once called, it couldn't be rescinded, could it?

Mike came out of the empty jailhouse. There he saw Dartmouth in the street groggily attempting to get up. Jerry was on Daisy trying to get her to settle with him on her bareback again.

It was then that Chip reached behind himself and pulled out a large hunting knife.

"JERRY!" Mike called out and pulled his gun from under his shirt. The cloth caught the hammer and drew it back as it came up.

An explosion in his hands – it felt as if his world had just detonated as his arm whipped back and forth from the unbalanced shot. Unlike the rifle he had fired before, the pistol made a wicked kickback in his hand. The rifle had taken two hands to operate, so he wasn't ready for the pounding his shoulder and arm took as the gun discharged. His shirt shredded as the bullet tore out of the muzzle.

Dartmouth looked behind himself at the sound and saw the smoke of the pistol and the boy who was falling back from the recoil. He turned and looked over at Saverem. He found that the horse had been spooked by the sudden clap of gunfire and was running away from them. The rider was bent over.

"Oh… my… god," Wolfwood said in disbelief. He looked at Vash and saw a stone face. "You… knew, didn't you?"

Vash grimaced. "He told us himself," he said as he gestured towards Dartmouth. "He's not allowed to have a gun."

"My god Mike… What have you done?"

They all looked back at Dartmouth. Kinza saw Tolefson standing as well in disbelief at what was now going on as Dickinson and Foley showed up to take him away. The shot seemed to have also blown the drunken stupor out of the man in the street.

"Mike! Mike, for the love of god, what did you do that for?" Chip said as he stood up and dropped the knife.

Mike was flat on his back. He had been able to see the whole thing as he had fallen. The kickback, the flash of the blade, the bad trajectory, the shocked expression on Jerry's face as the bullet struck him in the chest – And the blood… oh god the blood.

"Kid… KID!"

Mike shook his head. He looked up and saw Chip holding his gun.

"Mike, get out of here," he said. "Get on your horse and get the hell out of here, you hear? I want you to get home and wash your hands good, you hear me? YOU HEAR ME!?"

Mike stammered, "Y-yes!?" He quickly and mindlessly jumped up and bolted for his horse.

"Remember kid, wash your hands – AND USE SOAP!" Dartmouth said. "Get those powder burns clean." With that he shot the gun twice into the air making Mike's horse jump as Jerry's had and bolt for the road north.

Sheriff Bradshaw and his deputy were now running up the street as Dartmouth tossed the gun into the dirt.

"What's going on Dartmouth?" he bellowed. "Where's the man that was supposed to be watching you?"

Chip laughed and crossed his arms. "I just shot Jerry Saverem sheriff. It was self defense. You see? He drew a knife on me."

Bradshaw looked about. "Where's Saverem then?" he asked.

"His horse took off that way," Dartmouth said. "The gun spooked it."

The deputy held up the knife and looked at Chip. "How'd he get a hold of your knife, son?" he asked him.

Dartmouth grinned. "Just luck… just dumb luck," he said as he turned and stumbled-walked into the jailhouse.

Wolfwood could only stare at the dirt. The person he always thought had killed his son was innocent – the last man he would have believed responsible had done it… by accident. Dartmouth had taken the fall to cover his sin.

"Damn… damn it to hell…"

He was awakened from his pondering by the gasping air of his wife as she started to weep loudly. He rushed up to her and held her tight.

"Mike," she whispered through her tears. "Oh god, it was Mike… How? How? Oh how could it be?"

"Shhh… shhhh… it was an accident honey," Nicholas told her as she poured herself over his shoulder and he stroked her head. "He didn't do it on purpose… he didn't really… please honey… please…"

"This… explains a lot," Kinza grumbled to himself. He looked at the splattered ground and the trail of crimson that was heading out of town. "How the hell did he manage to make it all the way back to the homestead?"

"Alert all stations," Burnside's patch squawked. He started to slap it to shut it down as it continued to bark "Code Omega is in effect – Code Omega is in effect!"

Kinza sighed. "Well… the system knows that it's happened… That would mean we've done what we needed to do… let's get the frack out of here…"

"No!" Millie exclaimed over her husband's shoulder. "Xuru… please… take us to the homestead."

The Junior-Demon looked at her then at her partner. "Are you sure?" she asked.

Puruu stepped up to Millie and rubbed her shoulder. "Truly… do you really wish to go there right now?"

Millie nodded as she bit her lip. "Yes… I must know… I must know…"

Xuru held her breath and began adjusting their location.

Digger stood at his door at the depot waiting for the Saverem kid to arrive and take his wagon out of loading dock. When he heard hoof-beats, he stepped out onto the platform and readied to kid the boy about his girlfriend dictating his life. But when he saw the slumped form on the back of the chestnut filly charge up the road and continue on, his heart leapt for his throat. He quickly closed up the shop and jumped into his small Model T truck and followed behind as fast as he could.

The group found themselves back in the barn. Xuru gave the controls a slight time adjustment so that they would only have a few minutes to wait. They found David and his father tossing bails of hay out of the loft.

"God, there I am," Wolfwood said as he remembered where he had been when he saw Daisy and his son. The horse's brown side had been stained dark red as Jerry's life ebbed over her hide. She had distinctively delivered him back to the homestead. He shook as the memory was about to play out again before him. Why did Millie want to see this?

"Hey dad… isn't that Daisy?" he heard David say. He looked back to see the two men looking over his head from the ladder leading to the loft.

"Yea," he heard himself say. "Who's that on her back?"

Wolfwood looked back at the sight they were viewing. Daisy had just crested the hill. She then turned and showed her gruesome right side to them.

"OH GOD! JERRY!" David shouted. He was quickly off the ladder and running for the limp form of his brother followed by his father. The group slowly gathered behind them.

David and Nicholas gently removed Jerry from the back of Daisy and laid him to the ground next to the old Blackjack Oak. The reverend examined the wound and saw the bubbles coming from it and nearly gagged. He had been shot in his lung and was drowning in his own blood. He checked for a pulse and found a very shallow one.

"Get your mother!" he told David. "QUICKLY!"

David scrambled for the house. As he did, the reverend reached into his pocket and pulled out his emergency com unit – the sole device that he knew could help his son now.

"Rob! ROB!" he began to cry. "Rob, oh dear god Rob… where are you?"

The unit chirped. "Here Nick," it quietly replied. "We're ten minutes away… but…"

"Just get here! PLEASE!" he said as he held his son to his chest.

Wolfwood stood and watched his younger/older self as he caressed the bloodied face of his dying son. He heard the pierce yelp from the kitchen of the home as his wife was told by David of Jerry's condition. "Why did she want to relive this?

The sound of a motor caught Nicholas' attention. Digger was coming up the hill in his truck – it wasn't the help the reverend had been wanting… where was North? Where was Tolefson? Kinza? Doc McManus? Anyone?

Wolfwood remembered their reasons for not being there – they had said that there had been no ships in orbit to transmat them any closer. But now he knew that North had actually been only down the street a bit and that the Observer's order had been the reason why they had not come in time… and he himself had been the one who had been responsible for that.

He turned away and leaned against Jeb Murrah's headstone in the nearby graveyard. He glanced back and saw Millie and David rushing from the house. David was streaming a roll of cotton as he was going to put some of his army training to use. He skidded up against his brother and started ripping section of fluffy white material and started to stuff the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding and to seal the leaking air.

"Dave…"

He stopped for a moment and stared. Jerry was awake – barely. He shook his head and gave him a weak smile.

"Accident… it… it was an accident…" he whispered.

"Shhh… shhh," he said as he returned to packing the wound. He stopped when his brother's hand landed on his.

"Too late…" he said. "You know… as well as… I do… Too much blood… too much…"

"Bullshit, Jerry," his brother spat as he worked harder. "You're not dying on me… you're not dying on her!"

David found his brother's other hand in his - a small paper wrapped box pressed into his fingers.

"It's up to you now," Jerry said. "I'm… depending on you… take care of her… please?"

"That's where I've seen it before!" Millie exclaimed. "The ring David gave to Gretchen… it was the ring Jerry bought!"

Dave wavered on his hunched feet and finally fell to his knees as the realization struck him. There wasn't anything he could do for this type of wound, and he knew it. His brother lay before him with a pale smile on his face as he labored to breathe.

Gretchen looked out her door. She had heard a loud grinding sound down the drive as she was preparing for that evening. As she did, the steamer fire engine ground by heading up the ways towards the Saverems. A hard shallow feeling swept through her as she saw the red machine drive away with its bell ringing. She bolted out the door for the path that would take her to her second family quickest.

"Are we finished?" Wolfwood asked his wife as he watched from the headstone. She shook her head as she watched herself and her husband huddle down over their sons.

"Just one more thing," she said as she began to walk down the drive. "Wait here for me, please?"

Burnside watched her as she stepped down towards the road and gestured Puruu to follow her.

Millie stood in front of the Steakhouse. Some of the work-hands were murmuring out front about the commotion going on up at the house. It became a yell when the fire engine turned up the drive, and the scream of a young girl was heard. Many of the men started running for the home.

"He's here," she heard. She looked beside her and saw Puruu as she took the loose bridle reins of Mike's horse and tossed them over a hitching post.

Millie nodded and stepped into the building. It had emptied out quickly. The small commissary had cups and food strewn all over from where the men had been moments before. She went upstairs to the dorm rooms and listened. She heard the muffled sounds of someone weeping and entered the bedroom it was coming from.

He looked back and saw the door opening but no one there. He was holding a knife in his trembling hands. He felt shock and surprise when he saw it lift away from him and lay down on a table nearby. Then he felt a presence – someone had just surrounded him – a woman he thought – he could feel her arms and her long hair caress against his cheek. And he could almost hear her speaking to him…

"Mike Timmons, I forgive you," Millie told him as she rocked him back and forth. "It was an accident… you never meant to do it…"

"M-mom mom?" he asked, making Millie clutch him tighter as that was the name he would call her.

She embraced him and rubbed his back as she whispered "It's not your fault," over and over to him as they both cried. Puruu watched over them and prayed.

It was only an hour later, but to those who had witnessed this history, it felt like an eternity. Xuru hit the stop button, and all held their breaths to see where they'd wind up.

"Well, it's about time you all showed up!" N'ya harped as the Forgiveness Chapel and the Oklahoma homestead in The Source once again came into view.

"The children?" Millie asked as she held her husband's hands.

"They are all in the schoolhouse," the Kuroneko said as he washed his hind quarters. "You also have a visitor in the chapel."

He sat on the third pew, his head bowed to the altar. He looked back at those entering the church and waved a notepad at them.

"Hey, Tolefson!" Kinza said with a smirk to the older and slightly scruffy man. "What are you doing up on this level son? The wife let you out for a visit?"

Tolly smiled a bit as he flopped the pad down and leaned back on the pew. "Assie says hi, fuzzball," he cracked. "I'm here to finally release myself from that stupid Omega order I made."

Kinza slapped his forehead. "Frack, that's right…" he grumbled.

Wolfwood looked questioningly at them. "What? You kept that order going all this time?"

"That's the conditions of the Omega order with the Observers," North said as he entered the side door behind the altar. Tolefson saluted and handed over the notepad to his superior. North leafed through the worn and tattered sheets.

"Did you pay for this?" he asked Wolfwood. The preacher just stood and glared at him. "Ah, I guess not…" He looked back to Tolefson. "So, how are things on Level 267?"

"Fine," he said with a sigh. "The pirates are quiet, the ship is in one piece, though I'm about to kill the computer… And the captain is still going to kill us all one of these days… but otherwise, normal… nothing to report."

"You're still with the Observers?" Wolfwood asked him as he leaned against the back of the pew in front of Tolly.

The older man that he knew shook his head. "Oh, I am, but I've become a field agent down on 267," he said with a smile. "I'm married and live and work with my contact down there, a certain ship captain that history scans says will become more famous than he already thinks he is… We've known a few of those, ea Kinza?"

The Tomassamassa cleared his throat. "I wouldn't know what you're talking about!" he sarcastically said as he jabbed Tolly in the shoulder.

North shut the pad and nodded his head. "Well, with this cleared up, you could retire if you wished now," he told Tolly. "This will release the hold on your ranking scores and credits… Let's see… you're now a Captain in rank, and the accrued credit interest is…" He whistled as he brought out a calculator to figure that out. He leaned over and showed it to him. "Buy a ship and retire, okay?"

"You mean to tell me that because I gave him that pad, that I held his military career back?" Wolfwood yelped.

Tolefson whapped him on the knee. "Yes! You mean man! You held me back!" He then grinned. "Thanks!"

Wolfwood looked at North then back at Tolly. "Huh?" he said completely confused.

North held up the calculator. "You just made him a billionaire," the scientist said. "Interest on a held career, when cleared of the Omega hold, can sometimes be quite staggering. In this case, since it happened in 1916, his payment credits for any advancements in rank were held ever since then… with interest of course!"

"Look at all those zeros!" Vash said. "It looks like my old bounty!"

As the old friends chatted below, Puruu found Xuru seated up in the balcony seats. She was rocking back and forth with the remote in her hands which were between her knees. She saw her partner materialize beside her and shook her head.

"What did we learn here?" she asked her. "What was the purpose of all that?"

Puruu sighed and looked at the stained glass windows. "We learned about how dominating the human spirit is. Even when broken, the parts still are able to function as a whole… We learned that a man will do almost anything for what he wants, even chance death…"

"He didn't chance it," Xuru mumbled. "He GOT it! What for?"

Puruu placed her hand on her shoulder. "He did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. Even his brother knew that, since he did marry Gretchen using the same ring his younger brother had purchased."

Xuru grunted. "This is a damn weird family."

Millie sat down at the organ. She slid back along the bench seat to rest her back against the pillar it sat next to. N'ya jumped up onto the piano behind her and cleaned himself.

"I'd say a penny for your thoughts, but truth be told, I think I would rather keep my change," the Kuroneko said as he grabbed his tail. "Rough was it?"

Millie nodded. "Beyond rough," she said. "Is everything back to the way it was?"

The cat looked about. "As far as I can see, it is… Meryl is waiting for Vash to return, Forrestal is lifting off Deneb One as we speak, and the kids have been chasing me around like there's no tomorrow. Sounds like things are back in place alright!" He walked over to her and rubbed his head against hers.

"He thanks you, you know."

Millie looked up at the simple look on the cat's face as he pressed it against her forehead. "Thanks me?" she asked. "Who thanks me?"

He tickled her nose with his whiskers. "A young lad of the name of Mike. He was allowed to stop by a little earlier."

"Allowed?" Puruu asked from above.

"Aye," said the cat. "He was being escorted upstairs. Seems he had been in the holding pattern called limbo for these many years. But it also seems you forgave him, which released his stay there. He had wanted to thank you in person, but his guardians were in a hurry, so…"

She smiled and nodded. "I understand," she said. "I'm happy he finally made it. It really was an accident. If we all were held back for accidents, no one would ever make it to heaven."

Xuru grumbled. "Heaven huh? Been there, done that… it ain't that special…"

She sighed and looked down at the reverend. She had not meant to put him through what they had just gone through. She felt badly for that.

Why?

"Damn it… I'm a demon…" she groused to herself. "Why should I feel bad for what I did? My mother would have danced on his grave… I feel like crawling into it! I'm getting too soft…"

She looked at Millie and then back to Nicholas and sighed.

"A demon with a conscious… dangerous… very dangerous…"

oOo

¤ See _The Lugia Chronicles_

**NEXT EPISODE**

_**NICHOLAS: Okay – no more interactive time viewing, right?**_

_**XURU: Yes sir! I've lost the remote!**_

_**NICHOLAS: Very good! Now, for a little fun!**_

_**PURUU: Fun?**_

_**MILLIE: Oh, are you going to tell the story about when you set your underwear on fire?**_

_**NICHOLAS: Chickie! No!**_

_**N'YA: How about when the pitchfork nearly gave you a new nose and ear?**_

_**NICHOLAS: Beat it fuzzball!**_

_**SPIKE SPIEGAL: Could it be when I crash-landed the Swordfish and you and I had to deal with an unruly bounty hopper?**_

_**NICHOLAS: We never did that…**_

_**EIN: Woof!**_

_**NICHOLAS: I couldn't agree with you more…**_

_**XURU: So what story will you tell us, Reverend Saverem?**_

_**Next Episode of T:MC – The Oklahoma Years – Chapter Seven – **__**Interview with Wolfwood – Part Three – Wolfwood goes to England**_

_**VASH: What ho! What's that blighter doing in these stories again mate?**_

_**NICHOLAS & SPIKE: Are you feeling alright?**_

_**EIN: Woof woof! Grrr!**_

Kinza, North, Tolefson, McManus, Puruu, Xuru, The Observers, UNS Forrestal, UNS Exeter ©2005 DMS – Used with Permission

Sabrina Natsumi, Jesse, James ©2005 The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Creatures/Game Freak

History's Daggers, The Lugia Chronicles ©2005 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission

Reference to Ah! My Goddess ©2005 Kosuke Fujishima

Characters from the Anime/Manga COWBOY BEBOP ©2005 Sunrise/BanDai Visual

N'ya, Burnside ©2005 S. E. Nordwall – Used with Permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2005 Yasuhiro Nightow  
All characters from TRIGUN: MOON CHILD ©2005 The MOON CHILD Project/DMS – Used with Permission

©2005 The MOON CHILD Project II/Denivan Media Services


End file.
